RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion

Is it just me?

<< < (2/2)

G8B4Life:
Ian,

Just re-read that thread. Your effort earned you a gold star in the department of friendship.

Traylor,

I know you didn't want your first post to be starting off with woes but I wouldn't have worried about that, we have more than a few first posts that are just a woe and asking for help to solve it, and we certainly don't have any rules that state that first posts must be warm and fuzzy and going on about "how much fun" RailPro is.

Anyway, analysing your extra info:

DigiTrax DCC as the track power. This should be ok in principal; they've been around a long time and their stuff is solid but there is a chance, though very remote, that it could kill an LM. The longer the electrical path (either rail or wire bus with feeders) from the track output on the booster to the end of the electrical path the more susceptible DCC is to voltage overshoot. There is info and oscilloscope traces on the net showing this over shoot to nearly 30v from memory. That can and does / has killed decoders and would probably kill an LM as well. Again, I say it's likely a very remote chance as the case, you usually need a very long electrical path for it to happen.

I've only got one Kato, but I've never opened it up (and it's packed away in storage at the moment though easily accessible) nor do I own any P2K or Atlas so I can't give much info on them but keep in mind what I'm about to say for all of them.

Depending on how recent the P2K loco is it might have RF suppression built onto the motherboard. LM's absolutely hate RF suppression and it causes very erratic and lousy performance. Many DCC decoders don't have this problem with RF suppression and perform flawlessly so I'd be checking all the loco's you had trouble with for RF suppression on the motherboards.

As for Loco E and the static, is the static like white noise or more like crackling/distortion? and it is a single speaker install isn't it?

I'd still try turning the volume down and see if it clears up and also checking that the connections are solid. If possible I'd also try it on pure DC as well to see if that makes any difference.

It's not a overly helpful suggestion I know but when this virus disaster is behind us sufficiently that you could visit, if your close to Ian perhaps you can get together and do an RP install together, Then you can have two sets of eyes on the install and make sure it works on yours and his HC etc.

- Tim

William Brillinger:
Traylor, I sent you an email. I'm sorry that this hasn't worked out well for you.

The most common cause of an unresponsive LM is a short in the installation that fries a component on the power input. Ring generally charges $25 to repair this. He say's it's easy to spot when this has happened when he opens it up.

Contact me and I'll be happy to do what I can to get you going or take the product back.

Traylor:
Hi Guys,
Yup Ian you are correct and I just read the thread you linked to, thanx to all for the input!
Tim and Bill, I’ll try some of the things you’ve mentioned.
It’s getting cooler out so I’ll be spending more time in the train room before long, I guess we all will?
Cheers

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page