Cannot add engine

Stupid question. Why Didn't you replace the battery in the first place and check to insure that all connections ( screws to the power pickups and lose wires)are tight? 

Now having said the above. Yes use the reover function but in this case  make sure all your other engines are of the track first. If that dosn't work. See if you can find the engine in the remote, delete it, wait five minutes and try to add the engine again.

Simple. Hindsight is 20/20. I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized what was going on- after it was too late, of course.

Chris

LVHR

Chris what was the end result?

I scared up a BCR and installed it. Put the engine on the track and applied power, 20v. Voltage is on the track, as the caboose lights up. Let the BCR charge, and did a READ to confirm the TIU is set to 1. (It is.) Followed Barry's instructions for the recovery function. No joy. The remote comes back with no engine recovered. Tried twice, same result. Just for curiosity's sake, I tried to add the engine anyway. I now get the message, no engine to add.

I also put the engine on a track with no DCS signal present. The engine does work in conventional mode, sounds and forward/reverse.

Suggestions?

Chris

LVHR

replace the BCR with a battery( Make sure the battery is fully charged). Then try it again.  I had an issue with a BCR and a 5V board, Put the battery back in after charging it and no issues . With a BCR you need to set the transformer at 11 until the BCR is charged( 10 sec). You might of blown the BCR by jumping to 20v which is too much power anyway.. Next time set the transformer at 15v.  

Doug

Let me know I will check back in about 3hrs.

Doug

Sorry for the disappearance. I ended up getting completely sidetracked and had to take this off the front burner.

First sidetrack: no 9v battery in the house. I figured as long as I was going to open the engine up again, I'd install a NiMH battery instead of a NiCd. It turns out 9v NiMH batteries are now as scarce as hen's teeth, and considerably more expensive! The only place I could find one locally was Radio Shack, and they wanted $25! No way!

So the engine sat while I took care of other items.

Tonight I set up a 3ft piece of track and connected a TIU through Fixed1. I left the BCR in from before, just to see what would happen. I let the engine sit at 18v for several minutes, and tried again to add it to the remote. It took! I have complete control: horn, bell, couplers, smoke, motion.

But all is not well. The engine now stutters and jerks every time I set it in the forward direction. In reverse it is as smooth as silk.

I checked both trucks for binding and foreign objects and found none.

I also set the track to be powered through Fixed2. W/o a jumper to Fixed1, the TIU is off. The engine responded perfectly in conventional mode. Forward and reverse are smooth as silk.  Which means the problem is not the motor or gearing, but rather the electronics. What should I check next?

Chris

LVHR

What transformer are you using and how are you controlling voltage on Fixed 2?  Check the motor leads and connections.

In conventional your getting full voltage correct?  Does the engine smooth out in DCS at higher speeds?

Take shell off and watch the motors to see if one is dragging at low speed.  Could be a bad motor, that is assuming that in conventional the voltage applied was high, were as DCS at speed 1-6 you only applying low voltage pulsed to the motors.   G

GGG,

For testing purposes my setup is a rebuilt 1960s era ZW and a single piece of GG track. The ZW is tied straight to Fixed 2 input. The Fixed 2 output side has color coded dual banana plugs leading to aligator clips, which connect at the track, no lock on. I verified the colorcode and wires are correct: Black to black to outside rail, red to red to center rail.

In conventional mode, I applied just enough voltage to get the engine moving. Probably 6-7 volts. For command mode,  I move connections over to Fixed 1 input/output and apply ~18v into Fixed 1. In either case, I should be getting what ever voltage I set the transformer to on the track.

I will try running it longer to see if it will smooth out. Maybe I will run the alligator leads right to the engine for this test.

BTW, I have a second SD45 of the same age that responds correctly in both command and conventional on this setup, so I don't think that is the issue. I noted that the sounds died immediately with this engine when I took it off the track, which means the battery in it is also low or dead. I will not run it again until I install a new battery or BCR.

Chris

LVHR

Ok, DO the motor test with shell off, but it does sound like an electronic issue of some sort.  Not sure why it would work in conventional with dead battery, also not sure why it would move smooth in conventional at 6-7V, but not smooth in DCS unless you only had 1-3SMPH selected.  G

I played a bit with both engines tonight. I'm running with the ZW set at 18v going through Fixed 1. I laid an engine on its side and connected the red alligator lead  to the pickup and the black alligator lead to screw on the frame. I also tried connecting to the other truck block. (No electrical difference.) Both engines respond pretty much the same way: The rear wheels start turning as soon as I scroll up the speed. The front wheels do not move until the speed setting is somewhere between 6 and 10 mph. The problematic unit's front truck starts turning ~6mph, while the "good" unit starts closer to 10mph. Go figure.  If I put a finger on a turning rear wheel, the front wheels pickup speed in proportion to how much slower the rear is turning. The more drag on the rear wheels, the faster the front ones go. The rear truck has a fair amount of torque available to the wheels. The front truck has virtually no torque. No stuttering or jerkiness was noted with any of the 4 trucks.

I put the track back into the picture. The problematic SD continues to jerk down the track in forward. I had it up to 12mph with no change. The other SD jerks a very little bit on starting, then smooths out, even at 3mph.

BTW, both units are RK, bought in 2005 with 5v boards.

Chris

LVHR

Your rear motor has the tach so when it is slowed down by your finger it is sensed and the voltage is increased to both motors.  That is why the front speeds up.  You can unplug the 5 wire motor connector and measure resistance on the motors and try running individually on DC with an amp meter in line.

Or, swap the front motors of the bad engine to the good and vice versa to see if the symptom follows the front motor.

If not the motors, possibly some gear lash issues in the truck block causing the stuttering.  These problems are some of the hardest to trace down.  At least you have a duplicate engine to compare against.  G

I got to thinking that since the engine behaved differently when it was by itself on the track and when I had it on its side that perhaps it would behave differently on the layout. So I put it back on the layout and connected a train; maybe 10-12 cars. It loaded right into the remote without a hitch, and then proceeded to run perfectly! Go figure!

So next question: I suspect I have a fair number of PS2 engines w/ 5v boards. (Need to pull my inventory sheet and physically track each one down. Unfortunately I did not record that piece of info when I entered them.) With NiMH batteries are scarce as hen's teeth, is it going to be cost effective to pull the old NiCds out and replace them w/ BCRs? Or am I throwing good money after bad?

Chris

LVHR

Chris,

With NiMH batteries are scarce as hen's teeth

Why do you say that?

Chris,

   You should have little problem finding the batteries, however I replaced all my batteries with BCR's cause I like them and they last darn near for ever.

Glad you got everything running right again however.

PCRR/Dave

Barry,

I went looking at a number of stores in my area. The only place that stocked NiMH 9v batteries was Radio Shack, and they wanted $25 each! One used to be able to find them at HD, Lowe's, Walmart, etc. No more.

Chris

LVHR

Chris,

Buy them online. Plentiful and cheaper. I buy from a local place, TNR, for about $8 each.