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Header: Hal-Zuzzu Model Railway Build Blog |
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| Published: Saturday, May 27, 2023 | ||||||
| Post: #146/174 - Views: 45006 |
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Added a stay alive to a Farish Class 08 with no sound After days of research on which tabs of my Lenz 10310-02 decoder to solder the wires coming from my LaisDcc 871007 Compact Lite Stay Alive, I decided to take the plunge and do this. If you are interested in how I converted this class 08 to DCC, here is how I think this image shows very clearly where the blue and black wires are soldered onto the decoder. 
With that done, I put it on the track and took it for a spin without the body. After a successful run, I put the body on and started assembling the very fiddly parts around the wheels. 
With that all done, I put it back on the track and put some wagons behind it. 
The very obvious test for me would be to pass it over the junction where the main and upper-level meet. This would mean it would have to come down a hill, enter a double-slip, enter a point from the frog side and go onto another point from the opposite side, exit from the frog end and cross another double-slip and start going up another hill at an extremely slow speed. Here is the result But then I realised there was a problem. Should there be a short on the layout or I decided to quickly cut power to the layout for whatever reason, this 08 would zoom off at full power until the capacitors were drained. Hmmm, something needs to be done. I have a couple of places where I lift the baseboard and I don't wish for the locomotive to go over the edge because it did not stop. Take a look. I suspect this to have something to do with having the DC option enabled on the decoder. If no DCC commands are being issued, the decoder will assume DC mode and consume the power in the stay-alive capacitors. Since the capacitors do not control the output flow, the motor spins at full speed until the energy stored in the capacitors is drained. So the next step was to disable DC mode and set the decoder to NMRA mode only. This is done by setting CV29 with bit 2=0 or by using DecoderPro, opening the specific locomotive in your roster and going to the "Basic" tab and choosing "NMRA Digital only" in the "Power Source Conversion" drop-down menu. The locomotive will always keep going when power is suddenly lost. That is the only job the stay-alive has. You can never stop the locomotive except through your command station or some app you might be using. The track needs to be powered and the locomotive will obey every order you send down the track. If power is lost, it will take power from the capacitors until they drain, just like if you have dirty tracks or it goes into a siding and you fail to stop it before it reaches the end of the track. It will run off the track and keep going until the capacitors are discharged or it crashes into something that will stop it from moving forward, but chances are the wheels will continue spinning just the same. In this final result, you will see that the "runaway" problem is 100% solved. Here are some cool things one can do with a stay alive installed in a locomotive and last but not least you can also do this. Why one would want to do it beats me All done. Now to enjoy it Check out the live CCTV camera HERE |
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