Folks, I am gradually spreading DCC through my (all too large) stable of HO locomotives. Started with the diesels, which were easy - all had a drop-in option available, just required a normal amount of care with snipping and soldering. Now I'm in the mostly brass steam stable.
I have heard that coreless motors (perhaps a bit of a misnomer in that they have a core but it is copper winding instead of iron) are fried by DCC. Bad news - I do have several models with coreless motors, and it is not realistic to replace those motors with normal cans - they fully utilize the high size to power ratio for which coreless are known. Good news - at least its only a few.
Can anyone in the forum comment on this? Is it a fairy tale, or real, or in-between?
I have heard, yes and no. Below is a link for Google search on this issue.
http://tinyurl.com/ofqd9lx
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
My adventures in brass engines have taughtme,
If you try to run a coreless motor direct of DCC (Strech address 0) you will fry it.
If ther is a decoder hooked up, no.
Karl
NCE über alles!
Karl is correct. They work just fine on DCC, but do not run them as a DC engine without a decoder on address 0 of your DCC system - even for testing. This isn't good for regular motors - coreless is even worse, pretty much guaranteed to destroy them.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
You need a decoder with high frequency drive - basically, most anything currently produced, but do not recycle the Bachmann DCC On-Board decoders (the non-sound ones) as they do not.Just never set one on the rails without a decoder.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks to everybody for your helpful replies. So the coreless can be run in DCC as long as they have a decoder and are in DCC mode. What about running them on straight DC? Long story, but as I gradually convert my loco fleet (gradual because of time and money in about equal measure), I am operating the layout in dual mode, i.e. it is either entirely straight DC or entirely DCC. Can I still run the coreless on the straight DC after they have had a decoder installed? Or should I leave them as the last steam to have decoders installed, and run them ONLY when in straight-DC mode?
As long as the decode is set to allow DC operation, they will be fine. Slightly slower than before, because some of the voltage is sucked up in the DCC decoder. Once you are 100% DCC, unless you need to take the locos (coreless motor or otherwise) to someone else's layout who doesn;t have DCC, I'd recommend settign them all to NOT respond to DC - it helps prevent runways when the track power comes on but the decode doesn;t initially sense the DCC signal. This can cause the loco to take off at full speed in one direction or the other, not under any control. Rare, but it does happen once in a while, and if your prized brass model heads for an open canyon to fall to the floor, it can get expensive and heartbreaking. I only run on my home layout or the club layout, both DCC, so I have the DC option disabled in all my decoders.
Using the decoder on straight DC feeds straight DC to the motor, just somewhere around 1.4V lower than the track voltage. So no pulses or anything to hurt the motor.