SamES Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Hello All. Have been looking into information on stay alive units on this and other forums. Have read posts stating problems after fitting stay alive units and solution was to disable DC running by altering a CV setting. I have a Select controller which, as my understanding goes, doesn't do CVs. Is there another way or is an upgrade to a controller that does CVs needed? Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Unfortunately, yes, by the looks of it. Or perhaps you could get someone else with an Elite change it for you, or try a local or online shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Graskie is certainly right that Select will not alter CVs such as CV29 which controls DC running amongst many other things. The Select is best described as the very basic entry level controller and will not do many of the refinements that are part of the DCC system. That said, if it is working for you, that's fine, keep it. But be aware that Hornby makes both the Elite controller, and the eLink combined with Rsilmaster running on a PC, that are far more capable. There is extensive coverage of those differences in threads on this forum and you can search for them. And on switching off DC running and why, the problem is that, if your DCC signal is poor for any reason, the decoder in you loco might not recognise it as DCC and instead think it is DC. When it does this with full volts present all of the time, it thinks it is being asked to run flat out and takes off like a scalded cat with emergency stop the only way to stop it. So switching off DC running is highly recommended. I'm surprised that there may be an issue with stay alive and DC running though. Stay Alive is just a big capacitor that sits across the bridge rectifier in you decoder and continues to supply power for a short period when the loco might otherwise stop when power is lost over points or such. Clearly such interruptions will also interrupt the DCC content to the decoder which may trigger a runaway if DC running is enabled. But I wouldn't have thought that might be any worse with a stay alive than without. I'd be interested if you have any references that say otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 DC=DCC in first line of last paragraph, Fishy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2e0dtoeric Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I think he was saying that the cap will not affect dc (analogue) running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2e0dtoeric Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Though why anyone would want to run a DCC chipped loco on analogue...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graskie Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Ask WTD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 Graskie said: DC=DCC in first line of last paragraph, Fishy? Yes I made a mistake there but not the one you thought. It should say DC runaway, not DC or DCC running. Now that last para should make a lot more sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I also should have said that a stay alive capacitor is fitted to the output of the bridge rectifier, not the input which is where the red and black wires terminate on the PCB. So to fit one to a decoder not already equipped to take one is a specialist job for someone with good soldering and circuit tracing skills. DCC Concepts site has coverage of stay alives, not surprising as they have decoders fitted for and with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SamES Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Thanks for the replies. Will add stay alive to a loco I think and see how it goes. Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 2e0dtoeric said: Though why anyone would want to run a DCC chipped loco on analogue...... Bit late this I know but I'm DC and have several DCC fitted locos. I have a mate who is DCC and he brings his locos to run on my layout occasionally. Hence DCC on DC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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