Legacy-TMCC Power Frequency

Hi all,

        I have had a bit of time today to play around with this.

So I thought I would update my progress.

I bought myself a little handheld oscilloscope over the weekend.

 Once I figured out how to use it (last time I used one was at school and it was the size of a suitcase!).

 Anyway I got the check the sine wave output from my large 1500W Aims inverter.

This was very smooth @ 60.24Hz. I also tried my small 300W Aims inverter again it was 60.24Hz.

 I was able to watch the sine wave in real time and it looked fine.

I then thought about Dale's comments about the earth ground.

Although this checks out with a continuety tester on both inverters.

 The 300W unit has been taken apart as it did not have a earth cable connecting the AC outlet ground pin to the inverter case ground point. I connected this up years ago.

 This unit does not have the problems with certain Legacy commands like the 1500W unit does.

I decided to open up the big inverter and have a look. This is has the newer "soft start" or "new equipment protection" type.

 Upon Opening it up I noticed it has some sort of surge protection built in. It also has what I think is some sort of noise supressor between the neutral and earth.

So this explains the problems. I decided to leave well alone!

After 10mins everything works correctly so one of these components must take time to warm up or it is a feature of the "soft start"?

Regards

Nick

Nick12DMC,

as Winrose 46 stated, indeed Legacy engines work perfect in 50Hz environment, and the TMCC engines that worked already in 50Hz do well in Legacy.

I am really appreciated with the Legacy operation, So I have started a refurbishment program to convert some TMCC engines to Legacy. I replace only the flyweel, the sensor board, the motor driver and naturally the receiver,add a five volts regulator, the sound module remains.

I have developed some technique to install the Legacy sensor on the motor even with close clearance in the hood to enable the turning of the motor in curves.. I then operate the engine in 'TMCC'-mode, but have nearly the same slow and soft motion as for a true Legacy engine. There is a lot of (mechanical)work to get this target, but the result is perfect.

By the way, I use as earth ground a connection to a heating pipe in the ceiling, but in the basement all pipes are earth grounded.

Albrecht

Hi Albrecht, 

                Thank you for the information. The Legacy upgrades sound very interesting.

Also the grounding using the heating pipe. 

 The only issues I have come across are the railroad speed keys and the smoke out put level. In the first 10min aprox. Of operation the speed step for example "restricted"speed does not trigger the appropriate railsound dialog. And the smoke output level is hit and miss.

After this time everything works correctly.

I had another guy with Legacy here in the UK try running on 50Hz and had the same issues except it did not just last 10min but all the time. He got a high quality pure sine

Inverter and his problems were fixed. 

Wierd, might be the step down transformer he was using had a earth fault.

I am thinking that this all sounds like a earth issue of some kind but why would the rest of the Legacy system commands work perfectly?

Maybe it's a question for jon Z. 

Regards

Nick

It's been a while but here's a update.

This past weekend I was reinstating the power and control items on the layout.

I had borrowed these to use on a temporary layout at our club show back in June.

Work has got in the way of fixing this up sooner.

Anyway I had been watching another of Mike's videos which shows the main wiring of a layout.

My layout had the power feeds coming off a loop of wire under the track with both ends connected to the hot terminal on the transformer. Mike shows the loop of wire but only connects one end to the transformer.

 I decided to alter the layout wiring as per the video. I also had ground loops for each track on the layout with both ends connected to the ground terminal of the transformer.

I disconnected one end.

In the process I upgraded to Legacy V1.52

The problems with smoke units and the Legacy announcements of railroad speed have disappeared. Everything now works correctly.

Nick H