Long Time Running [Extending eLink 'power on' time]

[Chrissaf]

i was wondering if it is fine to leave my elink on for a long time (24h+) of if it will overheat ect.

[Chrissaf]

This question has been asked before....If I recall I think the general consensus was 'do it at your risk'. It is not designed for continuous 24 x 7 use, but it really depends whether the layout will be operational and drawing power during this extended 'on' period. If there are no loco movements and minimal power draw, then there is less current being drawn to create the heat.

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If I recall correctly, the last poster of this question explained that the layout would be left unattended running train movement programs in an 'exhibition' environment.

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Someone is bound to ask this question anyway, so I might as well ask it now........why do you want to do such a thing?

[Tomchatz]

i wanted to use the schedule feature to have my layout run for a day-ish at the most so they will stop at the station ect without me controlling them  

[96RAF]

There should be no problem running RM and the kit for that length of time if it behaves itself, but it is unwise to leave anything running unsupervised as if there is a problem like a derailment or short then disaster will compound as RM tries to keep going until something trips out. RM-pro is supposed to have a facility to email you if a problem occurs but its still on the to-do list. I have seen a loco that melted its bodywork when it ran against the buffers and just kept running woth the motor not quite stalling but getting hotter and hotter. Worst case scenario is you could have a fire if your wiring is a bit under rated.

 

I have left RM running a complex program on repeat for 12 hours to stress test a sound decoder by incrementing the speed up (and down) every 30 seconds by 10 speed steps at a time from 0 to max, whilst playing each and every sound function in turn, that was in my railway room with the door shut but I kept checking in every so often in case of problems.

 

Just be aware that all machines are pre-programmed at the factory to work perfectly whilst you are watching them but as soon as you turn your bad they foul up big time. We had a big tractor fed dot matrix printer at work that was an expert at this. You could watch it for an hour then go back to do something else and it would immediately crash the feed and chuck paper all over the floor. You could almost hear it laughing...haha got them again.