You have done a good job describing the problem. My suggestion is to call NCE and describe that problem to them on the phone.
I also have a 5 amp Power Pro going on 19 years now, but I have never experienced such a problem.
They will likely want you to send the unit in for inspection and repair. But, before doing so, ask them if they have heard of this problem before and what the cause might be. That way, you can assess for yourself what exactly you are facing. Sometimes, they can resolve the problem on the phone.
Rich
Alton Junction
Welcome Tremmy.
Your first few posts will be moderated. This will soon pass.
Without the layout hooked up does the base station still short? Are there any gaps that might have closed up? What was the last thing done to the layout? Fresh ballast? New track?
Pete.
I also have the 5 amp Power Pro and in 15 years the only issues I had were when a lost coupler spring had made its way into a turnout, this happened twice. The shorting was intermittent but a good magnifying glass and a big magnet tend to find stray bits that somehow make their way to places they shouldn't.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Ok, where to start...
Before anything, let me state that my layout does not have power districts or short circuit protection like 12v automotive bulbs. My brother and I built it before really understanding alot about DCC.
Having said that, the Power Pro has been running fine for about 7-8 years, but recently, about a month ago, it started exhibiting peculiar behavior by shorting out randomly. I'll be running trains, about two engines, and suddenly both locos will stop and the NCE base unit's red light will flash for about 2-3 seconds indicating a short. Then, it will resume normal operation. After a few moments, it will do it again, randomly. Sometimes, it will do this three times a minute, other times it will be minutes in between shorts.
At first, I thought it was a loco's decoder going bad. So I removed every loco from the rails (and any other current drawing unit, ie, sound cars and lighted cabooses, etc), but even when not running trains, the behavior still occurs.
I removed all snubbers thinking that a resistor or cap was going bad, but his did nothing to solve the problem as well.
I've taken a multimeter and put it in Continuity mode to see if there's a short somewhere on the layout, but I don't get a tone when contacting the rails. This would indicated no short present.
Now, I have noticed that during the summer months when the humidity creeps up in my basement, strange anomalies start happening. Case in point: I have flourescent ceiling lights that sometimes won't fire up when the humidity is high. I do run a dehumidifier to aleviate some of the humidity.
Now, here's the rub...
When all is quiet in the room, I can hear a strange sound coming from the NCE base unit. It resembles the sound of a hard drive searching for files in a computer. When I first turn the unit on, I hear the sound intermittently, then it becomes more pronounced until the unit shorts. I took the cover off and placed my ear right next to where the wires come in from the track/power plug, and this is the area the sound is emanating from. Now, I know most short circuit protection circuits revolve around some form of diode arrangement. Could the reverse voltage of the diode be slowly breaking down (thus making the strange sound) until it decides to register as a short? Would a booster do anything for me?
Yes, the size of the layout probably could have used at least one power district, but according to sources, the PowerPro 5 Amp unit should be able to handle 10 locos running at once, and the most I ever have is 3. Of course, I have frog juicers running off of track power and a few flashing led circuits as well.
If anyone else has experienced this insanity, please let me know if there are any other troubleshooting measures I can take.
Thank you,
Tremmy