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EWS Class 08 DCC


Sir TophamHatt

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I have tried a similar decoder with so called 'stay alive' but the value of the capacitor was only 470uf which is far too small to help with uninterupted running so actually useless and is more of a nuisance as you have to find a space for it and secure it.........better to use a basic decoder such as the Hornby R8249 or any 8 pin offering from well known outlets..........HB

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However, if you are confident with soldering you could replace the capacitor with a larger value say 3300uf and install as that will work as a 'stay alive' with noticeable effect especially on 0-4-0 locos over points..........HB

 

ps......the polarity of the replacement must follow that of the original.

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That's a misnomer (a fallacy). It's all down to the Farad (Capacitance) value of the capacitor in the 'Stay Alive' (sometimes called a 'Keep Alive'). Some, indeed many, stay alive products are made on the cheap and only give enough energy for the loco to traverse a bad point (a few inches). To cover 2 metres would take a very large capacity stay alive to do that and a stay alive with that capability are far less common. Take the DCCconcept product you provided a link to.

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The product you provided the link to uses their 'Standard' stay alive. DCCconcepts have been careful (as far as I can see on the web site) to not make any claims for the support time for the standard product. They have however, made the 2 metre claim for their 'Super High Power' stay alive highlighted in yellow. But look at the price difference, £18 for one versus £12 for three. In general, unless the stay alive specifically claims high 'time to live' distances travelled, the bulk of stay alive products on the market will only give brief stay alive support.

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PS - Based upon the DCCconcepts website, I suspect that the £18 product is built using 'Super Capacitors', whilst the standard product uses 'can' Electrolytic capacitors. In general, the higher the stay alive capacity, then usually the larger the dimensions of the product, so it is unlikely that very small stay alive will have support for more than an inch or so of loco travel.

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Space in a Class 08 is very tight, you may struggle to get anything more than the smallest stay alive in it.

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PS - I should add.

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In my reply above I wrote: "Some, indeed many, stay alive products are made on the cheap".

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I should have stressed that I meant, made cheaply and not 'sold' cheaply. The DCCconcepts pack of three at £12 equates to £4 each. You can buy the same components used to make them for less than 50p and certainly less than a £1.

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So it's clear the EWS model doesn't have anywhere for a TTS chip and speaker that came out of the DB Schenker version...

The speaker fits nicely at the front (although it's touching a little metal pin from the motor - is that okay?).  However, absolutely no space for the standard Hornby decoder.  I've tried on top, down the side, it won't fit under the motor.  There's no space at the back either.

Disappointing.

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