Subject:
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Re: DCC slowing?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 23 Aug 2003 03:29:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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2091 times
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(not really replying to my own post, but adding the 2 cents of Robert Miles and
my reply to him...)
> Hi Brian!
>
> Sorry I couldn't post on lugnet, as my cookie has been once again deleted so I'm waiting forever for my sign up again.
>
> Anyways, the issue of the slow down actually may be the fault of the train wheels. I spoke with Lar and Kevin Salm during BF and found the wheels actually add alot of friction, causing the engines to slow down around the curves.
>
> This also includes the wheels on the engine as well. It seems as the train goes around a curve, the wheels push against a small piece of plastic, causing the friction. Both Lar and Kevin recommended sanding or cutting this piece out. If you look at the wheels next to the flange, you'll see this piece of plastic. If you can't find it, I'll show it to you at the next meeting (which is?).
>
> There's not much that can be done after cutting the piece out, since the flange will continue to slide against the sides, but by removing the piece, it'll allow more play.
This does explain exactly why the long, heavy trains had such trouble on the
curves, and why the banked curve in particular would be problematic. It doesn't
explain why the motors would get progresslively slower. Overheating explains
this. Overheating caused, in particular, by excessive friction in the train
wheels. :)
> Also, they recommend placing two points on the layout per DCC component such that:
> [point]-------------[9V]------------------[point]-----------------[DCC]
I don't follow you here. Remember, I haven't passed the LTC exam yet. (I keep
missing the "which of these two images represents a left point" question.)
>
> This seems to be the current way people are setting up their layouts.
>
> Let me know if there's anything else I can help with. I really need to catch up to you on the DCC programming phase, as I'd like to design a program for use on a laptop to "control" the layout :)
Have you looked at Full Throttle
<http://www.lugnet.com/jump.cgi?http://www.drvegetable.com/download_throttle.html>
yet? It has the DCC interface down pat. It just needs another layer to GUI our
layout over it. Actually, I envision an architecture that more than just a layer
of DCC, but this is .trains, not .geeks, so I'll spare the gentle readers that
discussion.
Maybe we can collaborate with the author (Chris Phillips) to accomplish this.
>
> Chat later!
> -Robert
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: DCC slowing?
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| (...) During the DCC conversion described by Tom Cook, there is some kind of semiconductor that gets removed from the train motor. I wonder if this component is somehow responsible for preventing excessive current in the motor windings? Judging from (...) (21 years ago, 23-Aug-03, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: DCC slowing?
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| (...) At the Indianpolis LEGO Road Show this past Friday, we ran the same layout as John referred to at the top of this thread. All the heavy locos that ran the outer loop experienced the exact same symptoms as he mentioned above, to the point where (...) (21 years ago, 22-Aug-03, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.org.us.indylug)
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