The plaster dust was on a turnout and a loco stalled on the turnout and fried the decoder - could the plaster have been the problem. The turnout has not caused any problems prior and after the incident.
Nope.
Is the decoder fried or scrambled ? Not talking eggs here ! I've had a few clients claiming their decoder is fried, but a factory reset brings them back more often than not. A voltage spike caused by an intermittent contact can scramble some of the CVs in a decoder. You can usually prevent that from happening by turning off the decoder's ability to run on DC.
Did your system indicate it to be a short, or did the engine just stop ?
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
The engine stopped and there was smoke coming out.
It is not my loco or layout - it is a museum layout.
Plaster dust (if it truly is plaster) would cause a stall, but not a short.Running over dirty track does not fry decoders. The main thing that fries a decoder is contact between the track input and the motor output. In some locos, one side of the motor is connect to the frame, which can be OK under normal circumstances if the wheel pickups are isolated fromt he frame. But a sudden shift, like a sudden stop caused by dirty track, or a wheel touching the frame in a derailment will pretty much instantly toast the decoder. Of the other way around, the frame may be grounded to one side of the pickups, and the motor brushes totally isolated, but a sudden stop may have shifted the motor to a point where the motor wire made contact with the frame. I don;t see just plaster dust would do such a thing, plaster is not typically conductive. Getting it on the track and wheels is going to cause power pickup problems, getting it in the gears is going to not be great for the gears and bearings, but a layer of dry plaster dust is not going to make an electrical path for a short.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
WVWoodman The engine stopped and there was smoke coming out. It is not my loco or layout - it is a museum layout.
Smoke coming out of the loco indicates a major problem. Probably blown decoder.
What scale and which model loco?
Which DCC system?
Factory installed or modified loco?
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.
Plaster dust alone would not cause a short or blown decoder -- there is something else seriously wrong with the decoder's wiring or installation.
Thanks for the replies - And your answers were what I expected.
I am a DC person and helping on this museum layout has been a learning experience for me - and our DCC experts do not offer much advice.
The only way for plaster to cause a short is if it is wet!
A loco merely stalling on a turnout isn't going to fry a decoder either.
But, just out of curiosity, what type of turnout was it?
Alton Junction
Peco Code 100 curved turnout. Isofrog.
Could there have been a shred of metal in the plaster dust. Maybe.
WVWoodman Peco Code 100 curved turnout. Isofrog. Could there have been a shred of metal in the plaster dust. Maybe.