I converted my layout from DC to DCC some time ago. My engines ran smoothly over all turnout while on DC. I notice after converting that my engines hesitate when crossing some of the turnouts now. I am using Atlas turnouts. I'd like to know what is causing this and how to fix it. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Ole97
Look at the back end of the frog where the rails come very close together. They are both of a different polarity. The wheels of your loco's may be bridging both of those rails at the same time causing a brief short circuit. The short circuit protection of the DCC system reacts very fast when it detects a short circuit. Much much faster than DC power packs. I had this happen on my layout when I switched to DCC five years ago. I remedied the situation by putting a little dab of paint or nail polish (which is better) on the tops of those rails to extend the insulation about 1/4 inch. This should help. By the way it happened with Peco as well as Atlas switches.
I don't use nail polish my self so I wouldn't know how apply it.
Just widen the gap with a Dremel or a file.
Good luck.
Lee
Are these Atlas snap-switches or Atlas Customline turnouts?
The snap-switches are wired for full connectivity underneath. Customlines, on the other hand, have dead frogs, although the are metal and they do conduct electricity. If these are short engines, or they don't get power pickup from all wheels, they may be hitting the dead frog at a point where no other power is coming in to that side of the engine, either.
You've always had this problem. On DCC, it's just more noticeable because engines don't "coast" over dead spots as smoothly as they did on DC.
You can power the frogs, but the polarity needs to flip when you throw the turnout. Tortoise machines have auxiliary contacts to do this for you. Atlas "deluxe" switch machines do, too, or you can get a separate relay and wire that in parallel with your switch machine. Another option is an electronic gadget called a Frog Juicer which will do multiple turnouts.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Our conversion had similar issues. I found it to be mostly caused from dead frogs combined with the sensitivity of the decoder. Since most of our decoders are sound and most of those are Tsunami's we have remedied most of the offenders by adding a larger capacitor. Some call these "keep alive" capacitors and have been added to certain decoders to address what is possibly your problem.
1. Since not all decoders have the keep alives, we really watch the track and wheel cleanliness. Especially since there is no electrical pickup on those frogs you need the other wheels to work perfectly.
2. If needed we add electrical pickup to wheels, especially steamers--that has made a huge difference.
Our approach has been with the philosophy of getting the loco to work in worst case conditions, that way when we go to other layouts we usually end up running trains vs diagnosing issues.
The frog juicer is something to check out too as are electrofrog type turnouts. Especially helpful if you run things like Trackmobiles.
Here's a link to Tam Valley( someone else recommended this too)
http://www.tamvalleydepot.com/support/frogjuicers.html
Richard
Try putting feeders at all sides of the turn out. I have had some Atlas turnouts that seem to loose contact at the pivot point when the loco would go over it, the weight of it picking the end of the point off the contact area. Once I added feeders no more problems