ARC Pro Shorting Issues

[Evzone]

My power base keeps shorting out.   At one point got a faint smell of burning, I put it sown to one of the cars.  Despite unplugging, plugging, cleaning, hoovering and the checking the track, I keep getting the error message on the app.

At one point the  Analogue setting displayed the red light, when switching to digital it turned green!!  Nevertheless, no power to the track. 

Is shorting a common problem?

This is the second day I’ve encountered issues, but did manage to race for about an hour before it decided not to play.  Incidentally, I called the help line about yesterday’s problems and they were very helpful.  I’ll call them tomorrow for more assistanc. 

Overall, when I get it working I’m loving it - but I’m getting frustrated with myself over my inability to keep it going!

 

[Blagard-01]

If you have a multimeter or can borrow one it would be easy to track down where the problem is.

 

If the powerbase flags a short then a multimeter across the rails should confirm it. To check if it is the powerbase or the track, you would need to take it out of the circuit and test both again independantly.

[gorp]

a track that is working and shorts out an hour later 

analog or digital

has a wire across rails, braids touching, or a magnet hung down too low

[Andy P.]

What cars are you using?

Some older cars and some cars uilt for competition may be pulling too many amps...

[Evzone]

Hi....thanks for the advice everyone.   I’m mostly using Scalextric cars, digital and analogue.  But, I have run a couple of catrix without issues.  The oldest Scalextric cars date back to the classic series of 2007, but again they ran fine.  

Question, if one of the older cars are pulling too many amps, eventually the power base would reconfigure?

 I’ve spoken to technical support ( who have been great) and ran them through the problems, for instance isolating the base, cleaning etc and they have agreed to replace my set.  

I hasten to add I don’t run competition cars, but I’m intrigued to find out if and how older cars could pull too many amps, and how I can find out to avoid any future problems.  

Anyway, thanks for the advice to date, any more is gratefully appreciated and despite the frustration of being without the set for a few days I can’t fault the company’s technical support and picking up and replacing the set. 

[Andy P.]

Well I don't recommend this unless you are good with electronics but I remember reading somewhere that the ARC powerbase can handle higher amperage input.

How much I don't remember

[gorp]

Find it almost impossibe for him to be drawing too many amps.

Had the pb6pro-sh at 8 amps and stopped adding cars at 11 , some with very fast motors which came from commercial raceways  which were not made for upgrading todays cars and could run at twice speed on the track as store bought brands of toys.  You almost needed a crowbar to pull cars off track thanks to massive magnet use  too.  BTW that test was done to find out how strong the slotit chip was and it did not fail.

[Evzone]

Well I don't recommend this unless you are good with electronics but I remember reading somewhere that the ARC powerbase can handle higher amperage input.

How much I don't remember

I think that’s away above my still level, but thanks for mentioning it.  I know an electrician I may ask him if he nows anything about such things.

[Evzone]

Find it almost impossibe for him to be drawing too many amps.

Had the pb6pro-sh at 8 amps and stopped adding cars at 11 , some with very fast motors which came from commercial raceways  which were not made for upgrading todays cars and could run at twice speed on the track as store bought brands of toys.  You almost needed a crowbar to pull cars off track thanks to massive magnet use  too.  BTW that test was done to find out how strong the slotit chip was and it did not fail.

Thanks gorp, that’s reassuring. I was starting to wonder if my commercially shop bought cars could have been the problem.  I’m of the mind that surely the Arc Pro would have been tested before it hit the market to the extent of loading it with as many cars as possible.  I’ve only run two cars on it at any one time, and one is the pace car.  Could one of the older cars be the fault maker?

Anyway, they are sending me a new set so let’s see how that goes.

 

[marcC]

I recently had this issue. Out of nowhere the power base is detecting a short. I disconnect the power base from the entire track, plug it in and after a few seconds the led flashed red. I re-connected my wired, digital control base and that works fine. Can these be serviced? who would I call?

Thanks,

Marc

[Andy P.]

Contact the retailer you püurchsed it from if it is still under warranty or contact customer care using the form linked on the right-hand side of the page.

Good luck!