I am using a NCE Power House R DCC system. I have Tony's Train Exchange / DCC Specialties PSX Circuit Breakers (3) and (2) PSX-AR reversing modules.
I recently finished the two main lines and two reverse loops. All of which are connected to the circuit breakers and reversing modules.
Last night I ran several trains on all the track checking it for problem areas. None were found. Everything was working fine when I turned the system off.
Tonignt I laid the main parts of the small yard for the layout. This required gluing and securing the track with map pins which I use a small hammer to nail in place.
After getting the yard tracks in place I thought it was time to run more new locos that haven't been run yet.
First up was a PCM Chessie Special that has run fine in the past. I put it on the reverse loop and started it forward. It went until it got to the turnout that had been turned the wrong way and stoppe.
I pushed it back and reset the turnout for the correct direction and it ran for a few feet then stopped and started going in reverse. I stopped it and started it forward again and when it got past he turnout I reset the turnout to stay on the main.
This time it stopped and started in reverse again. I tried to stop it but it kept on going. I used the emergency stop, pushing it three times to stop the system but the engine kept going in reverse at full speed.
Finally I turned the system off and started it again. Again the engine started in reverse at full speed. I shut the system down and thought the engine must be screwed up. At that point I grabbed another loco to try.
This one was an Rivearosi H8 2-6-6-6 with a Digitrax Decoder installed by me. As soon as I put it on the tracks it took off backwards just like the last loco.
At this point I checked the circuit breakers and found the outer loop main line had a short. The crazy thing is when a short is shown the system shows a pulse and all the lights flicker that are on the other circuit breakers. That isn't the crazy thing.
What's weird is the LED's that monitor all my tracks also flicker at the same time. The thing is none of them are connected to the track power. They are poewered by a separate DC Wall Wart that is not connected to track power for obvious reasons.
Here's my thoughts. Everything worked fine last night. Tonight I laid more track and was using a hammer to nail the track in place with map pins. The vibration somehow has made wires from the two sorces DC wall wart and the power bus come in contact and is reeking havoc on the system. This is the reason the loco's are running in reverse and not reacting to the commands.
As of yet I haven't had a chance to check the system. Do you think I have a correct diagnosis or is there something I am over looking?
I appreciate any help you can give. This is truely frustrating since I am trying to get this layout running before the grandkids come over for the Christmas celebration.
Thanks,
Bill
It sounds like DC voltage is going to the mains. It's a wonder the booster didn't shut down. Disconnect the wall warts for your LEDs first and try the system. Then if it works it works if not then look at one of the reverse units.
Good luck
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
In this situation,I suggest that you go back to the point where everything was going fine and disconnect whatever new connections you have done to add your yard.If the situation resumes to normal then your options is to reconnect every item one by one until your problem shows again.You say that you have hammered pins to hold tracks...could there be some "underground" wiring that you might have driven a pin through,thus bridging two circuits?Not likely I'd say but still possible if you have hidden wires under your trackbed.If such wire do exist,try pulling your pins out.
Most electrical problems take a few minutes to correct but many will need hours to find.And the only way to find them is to be methodical,check every item as you go and...take your time,it's the fastest way.
This is a common problem. You have to disable the DC function in the controller for each engine. Otherwise the engine can sometimes just take off in any direction with no explaination. I had it happen once and someone here gave me the same advice. The issue has never happened again here. With NCE its an answer to a config question. DC operation NO
Springfield PA
Disabling DC conversion is a wise thing to do ---- But it doesn't solve the problem. Frequent runaways are best dealt with by finding the cause. It's really not supposed to do that.
Martin Myers
I unpluged the wall wart and the loco stopped running, however the breaker still showed a short.
I went to all my tortorise machines and unpluged the connector then reconnected it and now the system is working fine again.
So now I know what is happening. As I said I was hammering the push pins to hold the newly laid track in place last night and after finishing that decided to run more trains. That's when the problem showed up.
I found this morning that the connectors I'm using are a 10 pin with a small insert to stop them at any point. In the case of the tortoise machines I only need 8 of the 10 connecting slots. What's happening is the vibration from me hammering has shifted the connector ever so sightly to the point it makes contact between the DC power that is used to switch the tortoise and the DCC power that I am using to power route the turnouts through the tortoise.
There is two ways I can fix the problem. 1) Use a piece of tape to hold the connectors in place so they don't move or 2) solder all the wires directly to the tortoise machines.
My first choice will be to try using the tape. If the problem occurres again I'll have to bite the bullet and solder the wires directly. Not too bad since I only have 5 that are routing power.
Thanks for everyone's help.
The NCE ProCab Radio system and TTX PS-REVs is what I use, too. I power my Tortoise switch motors, signals, crossing gates, building lights, and everything else on the layout from a 250 Watt computer power supply.
From your description of the way you're powering everything, there should never be any connection between the tortoise switch motors and track. You definitely have something wired wrong, or wires are touching somewhere under the layout that are not supposed to.
Carefully go back over all of your wiring under the layout, looking for any stray wire strands touching that should not be.
Avoiding problems like you are experiencing is one reason I always use barrier strips and crimp on spade connectors for all of my wiring, and I never use track nails anywhere. I fasten my roadbed and track with caulking.
We had something interesting happen at the club layout yesterday. Everything was running fine on the layout when a locomotive was placed on the 'program track'. A nearby PM42 stated flashing all 4 of its power district indicator lights! He tried 3 edngines and the same thing happened each time. I had to power off/on the system each time to recover. I had someone else put an engine on the program track, and there was no problem. He had to 'walk' about 30' and his shoes must have been picking up a static charge. I walked ove to where his engines were and carried an engine back to the programming track - NP. Strange....Jim
BTW - I installed a DCC Specialties 'Wabbit' on two 'wyes' yesterday. They work great, and I plan to install the 'auto' feature to throw the turnouts when approaching from the frog end next week. A very nice product. I picked it up for something like $23 and it controls 2 Tortoise switch motors. I can change the turnouts from the panel, from my DT400, or with the auto feature - it will change the points if they are not aligned correctly. Pretty neat, but a lot of wires(16) between the Tortoises and the Wabbit!
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Bill54 I found this morning that the connectors I'm using are a 10 pin with a small insert to stop them at any point. In the case of the tortoise machines I only need 8 of the 10 connecting slots. What's happening is the vibration from me hammering has shifted the connector ever so sightly to the point it makes contact between the DC power that is used to switch the tortoise and the DCC power that I am using to power route the turnouts through the tortoise. There is two ways I can fix the problem. 1) Use a piece of tape to hold the connectors in place so they don't move or 2) solder all the wires directly to the tortoise machines. Bill
Bill,
There are 3 ways:
3) Get some .060 styrene and cut spacers to go into the ends of the connectors to keep them centered on the Tortii (I assume you used the eight center contacts). You may wish to ACC the spacers in place since they're just a bit thinner than the Tortoise's board (.060 vs .062).
HTH, Steve
cacole From your description of the way you're powering everything, there should never be any connection between the tortoise switch motors and track. You definitely have something wired wrong, or wires are touching somewhere under the layout that are not supposed to. Carefully go back over all of your wiring under the layout, looking for any stray wire strands touching that should not be. Avoiding problems like you are experiencing is one reason I always use barrier strips and crimp on spade connectors for all of my wiring, and I never use track nails anywhere. I fasten my roadbed and track with caulking.
From hammering the push pins down to hold the glued track in place the vibration made the connector move ever so sightly to the side where the DCC track power came in contact with the DC wall wart power creating a short.
When this happened there was nothing I could do to stop the loco. Even using the emergency stop on the NCE system didn't work. I had to shut the system off at the power strip to get the loco to stop.
What happened was the DC power routed through the tortoise to the track and since the loco will run on DC or DCC it took off running as if I had it in full throttle on DC current. The wall warts I am using are 12V 1.2Amps. I use two of them on the entire layout. With the 1.2 amps of current there was enough to power more than one loco.
I'm extremely glad that I didn't burn up either of the two loco's I used.
From now on I will not use the slid on connectors, everything will be soldered direct.