tach reader/conventional? fixed!

Joe,

Unless speed control is turned off, it works in both  DCS and conventional modes.

Basically, in conventional mode some power is kept in reserve so that if the engine's speed changes (stripes pass slower in front of the tach reader) while track voltage remains constant, the engine's electronics provides some of the reserve power to the motors until the speed of the stripes returns to where it was previously.

Thanks again Barry!

Engineer-Joe posted:

 

... I can't remember if the tach reader even works in conventional mode?

.

The tach reader always works.  In all modes of operation - both command and conventional - it is always updating the odometer for distance traveled.  In all modes of operation it is used to meter the chuffing sounds and smoke puffing  (for steamers) and Rev'ing notch level sound (for diesels).

As Barry says it is additionally used for speed control in most modes.

If the purpose of your questions is to troubleshoot your slow engine, depending on if it's a steam/diesel/other you might be able to listen to what the sound is doing or look for changes in the odometer to determine if you're getting any tach pulses at all.  

Thank you. I got a couple more trains in and left this one apart on the bench for troubleshooting. It seems to run perfectly in conventional mode. I did notice the tach tape looks a little worn near the edges and in one area. I colored it in with a sharpie and will replace if needed. This is an upgrade that I did about two or more years ago. I don't see where it's rubbing at a glance so I may need to go in deeper. It ran great until just recently.

 I have a spare TIU at the bench but it wasn't updated to DCS 5.x because I didn't have the needed cable. The spare remote that I bought to go with it is updated and now in use outback for testing right now too. So it's easier for me right now to go outside for testing further. With all the stuff I have going on, I pushed this one aside a little while back until I get more energy. I expected the tape to be rougher or a tach wire to be broken.

Apparently the tach tape had faded enough that the black stripes were not doing their job. A went over them with a sharpie, and now the engine runs fine. This is the tape that's included in the kit BTW. Maybe sunlight got in there as they did not look as dark as they should?

 I'll need to do a better job of sealing up the truck from sunlight. Maybe I'll paint the raw white plastic shims I made that are holding the tach reader.

FWIW, I've had several of the "official" tapes be less than perfect.  The new PS/3 kit tapes don't stick all that well, they started peeling as soon as I started running it.  I replaced it with one I printed on shipping labels, those sucker stick solid!