Hi all;
modern era HO scale modeler, looking for a new DCC/sound loco. is a capacitor standard? My turnouts are peco insulfrog and there are some dead spots on the layout. While I've been working on fixing the electrical issues, i was wondering if a new engine would help too. is there a certain brand I should look for?
Outsailing86 Hi all; modern era HO scale modeler, looking for a new DCC/sound loco. is a capacitor standard? My turnouts are peco insulfrog and there are some dead spots on the layout. While I've been working on fixing the electrical issues, i was wondering if a new engine would help too. is there a certain brand I should look for?
When you say that there are dead spots on the layout, where? Do you mean the unpowered plastic frogs on Peco Insulfrogs?
Rich
Alton Junction
By capacitor, I assume you mean "keep alive". No, to my knowledge no manufacturer makes a loco with a keep alive installed at the factory, but they may have provisions in their boards to easily wire one in.
Peco Insulfrog turnouts do not cause dead spots. Be aware that they are power routing. If that somehow is causing something you think might be a dead spot, try to make sure that the points spring tightly against the stock rails, since that contact is how the other rails get their power. And if a spur is dead, check the joint between the turnout and the spur tracks. While the turnout will route power through to the end of the spur when thrown in that direction, the spur could be dead if the connection is not solid.
- Douglas
Doughless By capacitor, I assume you mean "keep alive". No, to my knowledge no manufacturer makes a loco with a keep alive installed at the factory, but they may have provisions in their boards to easily wire one in.
BLI's new Paragon4 comes now with "keep alive" features that you can regulate and even switch off. Of course, the list of available models is still very limited (actually, the first two models with Paragon4 are supposed to be shipped this month). And after the problems with Paragon3, we do not yet know anything about the reliability of Paragon4.
JW
Many of the latest releases by Scale Trains come with factory installed stay alive capacitors.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
DoughlessBy capacitor, I assume you mean "keep alive". No, to my knowledge no manufacturer makes a loco with a keep alive installed at the factory,
There is at least one that comes with a keep alive. Randy posted many times about how his Walthers Plymouth would run across the table once he took it off the tracks.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
For what it's worth, the ScaleTrains Rivet Counter DCC/Sound engines have a "keep alive" built into them. From one of the manuals:
Sound Equipped Models come equipped with ESU PowerPack Energy storage biult into the locomotive. These PowerPack devices will work as a backup if the models lose power for a short period of time. Please remember these are backup, not batteries. This is not an excuse to never clean our track again! They must be charged using track power to function and need the track power to stay charged. It should be noted that the ESU PowerPack only functions if an ESU is installed. The PowerPack will not function on DC or if another brand of DCC decoeder is installed.
I am not sure what other modern produced loco's come with such a feature from the factory.
Many of the latest releases by Scale Trains come with factory installed stay alive capacitors. Mark.
From what I understand, it's only the ESU sound equipped ScaleTrains Rivet Counter engines that come with the powerpack/keep alive feature.
The Peco insulfrog turnouts have a fairly short frog area that is unpowered. I would guess that most engines would not lose power due to those short dead spots; perhaps very short wheel base engines might.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Are your dead spots actually at the frogs of turnouts? For me, dead frog issues only bothered small units, generally my two-axle trolleys. Powering frogs has since eliminated all my dead track stalls.
Determine if you're getting stalls or momentary shorts. These are separate problems and require separate solutions. Put another loco nearby, stopped but with its light on. When you get a stall, do the lights stay on? That's a stall. If the lights on the other engine flicker or go out momentarily, it's a short.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Stalls.
I would say half of my insulfrog turnouts don't work as describe. They don't seem to be power routing.
Outsailing86 Stalls. I would say half of my insulfrog turnouts don't work as describe. They don't seem to be power routing.
I don't think that Insulfrogs are power routing. I think the Electrofrogs do that.
Outsailing86 I would say half of my insulfrog turnouts don't work as describe. They don't seem to be power routing.
DoughlessNo, to my knowledge no manufacturer makes a loco with a keep alive installed at the factory.
If I am remembering correctly, didn't Walthers make a switcher with a keep alive installed?
I seem to remember watching a review video on MR Video Plus where Cody put masking tape on the tracks for about 12 inches and ran the locomotive over it.
Maybe this was the Plymouth someone mentioned earlier, but I thought it was a larger switch engine. I guess I did not pay so close attention since I do not have DCC.
-Kevin
Living the dream.