Tech 4 280

[West Penn Nscale]

Hello.....

Brand new to the Hobby (working on layout for 6 months).....Have a small Nscale (DC) layout 40x90"  and I am have trouble with the speed and power of my Tech 4 280 ,,,, LOCOs are not moving until the throttle is at 40 mps ... is this normal....I am using EZ track and the wire connections are correct... Any Ideas ,,,,thanks  

[fwright]

If you have access to a voltmeter, measure the voltage on the track just before the locos start to move (locos on the track).  If the voltage when the locos start moving is around 3-4 volts - that is about right.  If the voltage is significantly higher, it indicates binding and/or high friction within the locomotives.

The other possibility is voltage drops in your track and wiring.  EZ track (along with most N sectional track) has been reported as being prone to observable voltage drops over many sections of track.  The cure is to increase the number of wire feeders - parallel wires that provide power to track - so that there are feeders at least every 10 sections of track.  Many would advise closer spacing of feeders than that.  Copper wiring - even thin wire - is a much better conductor of power than nickel silver rail and rail joiners.

hope this helps

Fred W

[West Penn Nscale]

Fred, thanks for the info I will try voltage test ,,,,,  I think I follow you on the parrallel wires... would those wires then be connected directly to the tech 4 ..

 Pat

[jeffrey-wimberly]

30 to 40 on the throttle would be about right right on the 280. I have some DC HO locos that don't start moving until about 50 - 60.

[West Penn Nscale]

I am guessing this will slow your LOCO on small (1-2%)grades also .....

 

 

[Blue Flamer]

Fred, thanks for the info I will try voltage test ,,,,,  I think I follow you on the parrallel wires... would those wires then be connected directly to the tech 4 ..

 Pat

Pat.

    to the Forum. What you should do, is run a couple of larger wires (14 or 16 guage) from your controller under the length of your layout. This is called a Bus or sometimes Buss wire. You then run Feeder wires from the Bus to the track every 3 to 4 feet or so and solder these wires to the outside of the track. These wires only need to be small wires like thermostat wire or telephone wire and if you do not have any, they are both available at Home Depot or any larger Hardware store.

The easiest way that I have found is to run the Bus under the layout following the general track pattern. It should just dead-end and not connect back to your controller. This type of wireing will make it easiest to convert to DCC in the future as you just have to connect up your DCC control in place of your DC controller.

Good Luck.

Blue Flamer. 

[West Penn Nscale]

Blue Flamer...thanks for the info .... I will look into that as a possible fix for speed and power isssue ....