Ground Plane Wiring

Do you mean that you have a loss of TMCC control at the problem area. The solution to use a ground wire, if it is a solution, is to place the wire over the track where the problematic engine is to run. The ground wire actually behaves as aTMCC signal antenna in addition to the house wiring third wire, the green ground wire. The additional wire should be connected to Pin #5 on the DB9 connector on the TMCC base. Alternatively, you could connect the ground wire to the third wire ground pin on the house wiring. The main antenna above the layout is the third wire (the green wire) of the house wiring. The TMCC signal IS connected to the third wire of the house wiring by way of the ground pin on the base power plug.

KOOLjock1 posted:

I'm looking at creating a ground plane for elimination of some TMCC interference in one spot on my layout.  Track One is on a grade, parallel to Track Two which is mounted to the table.  I want to create a ground-plane to isolate the TMCC signal between these two lines.

Does placing your hand  in that area eliminate the interference? if yes, a ground plane will work

Two Questions:

1.  Can the Ground Plane wire just run along the ties of the elevated track?

Yes - a small gauge wire is sufficient - 20-24 awg - use the side that is in between the two tracks

2.  I know it has to come back to "earth ground"... how is that achieved?  Surely not by shoving the end of the wire into a socket!  Power to the layout is a three-pronged power strip, with each transformer phased and plugged into said strip.

The center screw for the outlet cover on a properly grounded outlet contacts earth ground. If that doesn't work we can find another earth ground near the layout

Thanks!

Jon

 Ask the techs that handle the transmitter tower if an earth ground is important 

You can use any size wire, since finer wire is cheaper, use finer wire.

One important point!  For best results, bring ALL the earth grounds to a single point at the command base.

Okay.  the problem only exists with two engines in my fleet; a Baby K4 upgraded to TAS cruise, and my LionMaster Hudson.  Everything else runs great.

Jon

If it's only two engines, your baby K4 could have a bad R2LC or the antenna is not right.  LionMaster Hudson, I would say an antenna issue.

Ground plane wire connection ... just plug it into the ground pin of the wall socket.  Unless you live in an older house, your wall sockets are wired to ground and that connection is available from the ground pin of plugs and the screw that holds the cover on the sockets.   Buy a 3-prong plug and connect your ground plane wire to the ground pin.

However, the most direct connection for the TMCC signal is pin 5 of the DB9 connector.   Soldering up a DB9 jumper to get the pin 5 output is a bit more tedious than the 3-prong plug solution.

Again, the best results will be obtained if all the "ground plane" wiring is returned to one common point, that being at the command base.  While other schemes will work, and in most cases you won't notice a difference, why compromise?  If you're having TMCC signal issues, and you're going to the trouble of adding the ground plane, why not do it the best way possible?

SUCCESS!  Sort of...

So just as a test I ran a single insulated wire along the roadbed of the elevated line... through a bridge, along the retaining wall, and then down under the layout and out to a crimped ring connector on the screw of an outlet plate.  I ran the engines that were giving me troubles (nothing weird, just some blinking lights and stalling... classic signs of too much signal) and everything worked perfectly! 

Now... the wire as run looks a little ghetto... so I'll have to clean that up.  I've also noticed that my TAS/Baby K4 runs great for about ten minutes, but then gets a mind of it's own and takes off.  Seems to NOT be a signal thing, but a heat thing.  But at least it's not stalling and blinking anymore. 

And everything on the high line is working now too!

Thank you all!

Jon

I suspect your heat problem is internal component failure.  I look for those with a heat gun.

That was my guess too!

Jon

KOOLjock1 posted:

SUCCESS!  Sort of...

 

Now... the wire as run looks a little ghetto... so I'll have to clean that up.  I've also noticed that my TAS/Baby K4 runs great for about ten minutes, but then gets a mind of it's own and takes off.  Seems to NOT be a signal thing, but a heat thing.  But at least it's not stalling and blinking anymore. 

And everything on the high line is working now too!

Thank you all!

Jon

Ha. I've noticed that the ghetto look works better with RF. Just kidding of course, but there is some truth to it too. 

We ran a signal-sink grounding wire along the edge of the plywood all along the upper level.  Then we noticed it made no difference when we unplugged it from the grounding outlet.  And we have no other TMCC "grounding wire" anywhere else.  6-track parallel yard works fine with no wires, etc.

Only thing different with ours from friend's is we joined both outside rails of the Gargraves track as tied-together common, attached via drops to the common buss wire which runs the entire layout and is commoned to the phased transformer bank common.

So in actuallty we can run the layout without any TMCC "common signal sink" setup.

It might be because the lighting wiring all across the ceiling performs the same function?