My first experience with a TCS KAM4 decoder

[railfan4life]

I recently installed my first TCS KAM4 decoder and am pretty impressed with the results.  I was experiencing a problem with an Athearn SW1000 stalling at slow speeds when going through my double crossover.  Rather than add some additional wiring to the double crossover, and since this was the only engine having this problem, I swapped out the engine's decoder to a KAM4.  The KAM4 has a keep-alive capacitor that is able to store a few second worth power to keep the engine running over dead spots.  Installation was straight forward and now the engine can slowly go through my double crossover without stalling.  

 

If you're interested, I posted a short video showing the before and after operation of the switcher.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntX57WRhCyQ&list=UU-vW_TiprCLM6OkJUBjl00g&feature=share

 

Cheers,

Kevin 

Railfan4life 
Modeling Colorado's Joint Line 
www.youtube.com/channel/UC-vW_TiprCLM6OkJUBjl00g

[rrinker]

 Interesting to see how it dedicates all the keep alive power to the decoder and motor, and doesn't supply power to the functions - the lights blink but it never stalls.

                  --Randy

 

[railfan4life]

Randy,

 

Yes, I noticed that as well.  I guess the point of the design was to dedicate 100% of the available power to getting the engine through the dirty/dead track and onto another section with electrical pick-up.  However, the KAM4 is specifically designed for engines with incandescent bulbs.  The KAM4-LED is for engines with LEDs.  Not sure if the KAM4-LED would perform the same want or not.

[gmpullman]

Hi, Kevin

Thanks for posting that. I have a KAM4 still in the package waiting for a future project but I did just install a WOWsound decoder in a BLI Blueline Mikado that had a bad soundboard. WOW is right! Beautiful motor control and the sounds are spectacular and the keep alive capacitor keeps the engine running  over any dead spots.

I have to get used to the sound continuing for about 20 seconds after I power down the layout! Keep Alive circuitry is the way to go. MTH has a great "flicker free" capacitor circuit in their passenger cars that works great, as well.

Happy modeling, Ed

[rrinker]

 Pretty sure the only difference between the KAM4 and KAM4-LED is the current limiter for the LEDs. The KAM works witht he AThearn 1.5v light bulbs because you just plugged it in tot he factory board which is where the resistors are, the KAM4-LED you can just connect directly to LEDs with no resistors. Given that with the -LED version, the load of the LEDs is known, whereas witht he regular one,t he load can go up to the function maximum limit, it's possible that the -LED would keep the lights on too. But if I had to guess, probably it would work the same.

           --Randy