If I remove the gears from my Atlas Gold Master CW40-8 to run it as part of a consist will I harm the decoder or motor if I leave those in as is? As in the motor will still spin and the sounds will still work but with no gears to the trucks. This units decoder has a motor control issue and wont run smoothly anymore so I figure if I remove the gears I can run it in a consist with its sound but not actually providing traction.
Have you tried resetting the decoder to factory default values to see if that corrects the “motor control issues” you mention? Exactly what are these motor control issues? Rather than being related to the decoder, your issues may be dirty wheels or loose wiring, especially if you have not soldered all the wires to the decoder connections.
If you must perform this surgery, you should also disconnect the motor and substitute a resistor to keep a load on the decoder’s motor circuit so it will think it’s still pulling a load. A 10 Ohm 2 Watt resistor could be used in place of the motor.
I have reset the unit multiple times, havent been able to fix it for over 2 years. It runs but it surges and hesitates so badly to the point it breaks couplers on some cars. Its not dirty track or wheels as I clean my rails regularly and even went as far as replacing all 6 axles on this unit with new factory wheelsets. Wiring has also been checked. Im extremely bad with electronics so soldering the decoder isnt something I can do. I was hoping just to let the thing run with no gears. I use DCC.
Why not replace the faulty decoder?
Rich
As I mentioned I have no experience with electronics and ruined a DCC decoder trying to solder it into a loco recently, so I’m not going to spend $90+ on a decoder I will inevitably destroy trying to install. Im just looking for a quick and easy solution to get this unit back on my layout in some form without too much work.
I assume that the locomotive is a DASH 8-40CW, not a CW40-8. Atlas had several releases of this particular locomotive as part of its Atlas Master™ Series Gold.
Stripping out the gears may or may not be a workaround solution, but if it were my locomotive, I would contact Atlas and discuss the problem. Atlas has a pretty good customer service department, and they can probably repair or replace the decoder for you, hopefully at a nominal cost.
It can’t hurt to contact Atlas.
Rich
To answer your question, It will not hurt either the motor or decoder to run it with the gears removed. Check how freely it rolls with the gears removed as you may find it it cause considerable drag, and the motor spinning may cause some extra noise but thy’re the only problems I can think of. Other suggestions are valid too, but I hope this answers your question.
I’ll agree with Alan on this, just make sure things spin free.
Since the motor is still online and there is going to be some drag in the geartrain, I’m guessing that no resistor will be needed in this case in order to fool the decoder into “seeing” a motor.
This is actually a pretty good idea if there’s no need for the unit to operate by itself and if someone is on a budget. Work with what you’ve got. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately. And It’s always easier to sell my better half on why I need a particular something if I tell her the rest of the project is recycled from the parts bin and deadline…[;)]
Where there might be an issue is if the decoder uses BEMF, because that will be a different without a load on the motor and may cause a lack of synchronization in sound between it and the other units in a consist.
Well I removed the gearing, set the motor control on the decoder so that it runs at very low speed at all steps and consisted the unit. Wala! no issues thus far and I have sound from the gear-less unit and the leader. Cant even hear the trailing units motor. Ill report back any issues that may arise.
Bigblueconrail,
I’m finding it hard to believe,that the decoder,is causing your issue that it won’t run smoothly any more. More then likely,it is a mechanical issue,like cracked gears,or driveline bind,or even hardened grease in the gears. But if you insist on doing it your way,making a dummy with sound,out of it,take the gears out,disconnect the motor driveline,disconnect the motor to the decoder,the power wires. It just seems,odd to be pulling,a heavy dummy around…
Cheers,
Frank
Disregard,the above post,my PC didn’t update the thread and when I answered there were 0 responses…
Cheers,
Frank
Frank, you make a valid point.
The OP’s workaround may work, but it is a waste of a perfectly good locomotive and a decoder as well.
I will stand by my last suggestion that it can’t hurt to call Atlas and discuss the issue.
Rich
I did call atlas a while back and after troubleshooting it did seem like the decoder was the issue as the mehcanical part of the loco was in great shape. It would also cost quite a bit to send it in for repair and have the deocoder swapped as this unit is long out of warranty.
If this is an Atlas Gold series loco that came with the decoder, there would be no soldering required if the factory decoder is available as a spare part, all the wheel pickups, lights, speakers, and motor wires plug in to the factory board.
It will run wihout gears - probably best to pull the universals at the flywheels as well, no sense turning the drive shafts and worm in the top of the truck with no other hears. In fact, if you pull the work off the top and the drive shafts, that’s all you should have to do.
I purposely built a sound loco like this, I had a Stewart F7 B unit dummy, they happen to have metal wheels and all you need to do to get power is solder wires to the trucks where the powered units have them. I put a sound decoder and a BIG speaker inside, since there was plenty of room.
–Randy