Power surge

[Trevor -356848]

My digital Lane changers and the pit lane cause all cars to have a power surge when going through (at 2 points usually). Is this normal? It means I've had to move them well away from a corner at the end of the straights.

[Andy P.]

Do the cars all have digital chips installed?

Does this happen whether you trigger a lane change or not?

What kind of lane changers? Straight or curve?

Have you tried setting up the smallest possible circuit and testing the lane changers individually?

[Trevor -356848]

Hello Andy.

all cars are digital. All straights, and happens whether lane change triggered or not. Not tried to make a small track to test them individually but to be fair I wouldn’t have thought of that because it’s all brand new track. However, I’m will give it a go.

so I’m guessing it’s not normal.

regards. Trevor.

[Andy P.]

No it's not normal but it would be odd that so many things go wrong at once.

In a digital layout the rails have full power all the time.

What makes the cars move is the digital chip tells the motor how much power to let in to the motor.

Think of it as the same as a water tap: There is always water in the pipes on at full pressure but you determine how much water comes out by turning the tap.

So if there is a power surge either the rails are under more current for some strange reason or the chip is telling the motor to suck more power or a strange combination of factors...