Hi all;
modern era HO scale modeler, looking for a new DCC/sound loco.
is a capacitor standard? My turnouts are peco insulfrog and there are some dead spots on the layout. While I’ve been working on fixing the electrical issues, i was wondering if a new engine would help too.
is there a certain brand I should look for?
A new engine will not fix electrical issues. Fix the electrical issues first, then buy the new engine.
When you say that there are dead spots on the layout, where? Do you mean the unpowered plastic frogs on Peco Insulfrogs?
Rich
By capacitor, I assume you mean “keep alive”. No, to my knowledge no manufacturer makes a loco with a keep alive installed at the factory, but they may have provisions in their boards to easily wire one in.
Peco Insulfrog turnouts do not cause dead spots. Be aware that they are power routing. If that somehow is causing something you think might be a dead spot, try to make sure that the points spring tightly against the stock rails, since that contact is how the other rails get their power. And if a spur is dead, check the joint between the turnout and the spur tracks. While the turnout will route power through to the end of the spur when thrown in that direction, the spur could be dead if the connection is not solid.
Keepalive technology will allow a locomotive to cross a dead spot but it will not solve a “dead” spot that is actually a momentary short circuit.
Peco Insulfrog (and the new Unifrog even more so) turnouts can cause momentary short circuits with some metal wheel profiles. Newer locomotives should not cause these but your older locomotives or rolling stock may.
A momentary short circuit will cause the locomotive to stall momentarily and may kick out the DCC booster completely resulting in everything stopping, depending on whether you have power district short circuit protection also.
BLI’s new Paragon4 comes now with “keep alive” features that you can regulate and even switch off. Of course, the list of available models is still very limited (actually, the first two models with Paragon4 are supposed to be shipped this month). And after the problems with Paragon3, we do not yet know anything about the reliability of Paragon4.
JW
Many of the latest releases by Scale Trains come with factory installed stay alive capacitors.
Mark.
There is at least one that comes with a keep alive. Randy posted many times about how his Walthers Plymouth would run across the table once he took it off the tracks.
For what it’s worth, the ScaleTrains Rivet Counter DCC/Sound engines have a “keep alive” built into them. From one of the manuals:
I am not sure what other modern produced loco’s come with such a feature from the factory.
From what I understand, it’s only the ESU sound equipped ScaleTrains Rivet Counter engines that come with the powerpack/keep alive feature.
The Peco insulfrog turnouts have a fairly short frog area that is unpow
Are your dead spots actually at the frogs of turnouts? For me, dead frog issues only bothered small units, generally my two-axle trolleys. Powering frogs has since eliminated all my dead track stalls.
Determine if you’re getting stalls or momentary shorts. These are separate problems and require separate solutions. Put another loco nearby, stopped but with its light on. When you get a stall, do the lights stay on? That’s a stall. If the lights on the other engine flicker or go out momentarily, it’s a short.
Stalls.
I would say half of my insulfrog turnouts don’t work as describe. They don’t seem to be power routing.
I don’t think that Insulfrogs are power routing. I think the Electrofrogs do that.
Only the new Unifrog does not power route. Peco adds the stock rail to closure rail jumpers for you and the closure rails each form one continuous rail with the point rail, except for N scale.
Both Electrofrog and Insulfrog have dead closure and point rails until the point rail contacts the stock rail. The closure rails and the frog rails will pass power back if the frog rails are powered which makes them not so DCC friendly.
Any Insulfrog or Electrofrog that does not power route must have had somebody add the jumpers from stock rails to closure rails. Peco doesn’t build them that way.
Peco Insulfrogs are power routing. However, if a Peco Insulfrog is wired at all three ends, it will appear not to be power routing.
Rich
If I am remembering correctly, didn’t Walthers make a switcher with a keep alive installed?
I seem to remember watching a review video on MR Video Plus where Cody put masking tape on the tracks for about 12 inches and ran the locomotive over it.
Maybe this was the Plymouth someone mentioned earlier, but I thought it was a larger switch engine. I guess I did not pay so close attention since I do not have DCC.
-Kevin