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Nick_

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Posts posted by Nick_

  1. If you are unable to buy replacement traction tyres there is a product named ‘bullfrog snot’ which allows you to make your own traction tyres. Bullfrog Snot is available from many model railway supplies, just google it.

    P.S. I have not used this product myself, but I just know it exists.

  2. My own layout is 34 metres (total) of track in a condensed area about 2.5 metres square. I had DCC issues which my 'snubbers' (2) totally resolved. In general, I personally would say that they are a good insurance policy for any layout (regardless of size). This is the very first time I have heard anybody say that a well designed and properly installed 'snubber' made something worse (see post on previous forum page).

    I eventually found that my problem was being caused by a restive short circuit. This meant that my eLink was supplying over 3A continuously (my eLink has the 4A supply). Adding snubbers simply increased the current draw further! I have discovered that running an eLink at near its maximum continuously can distort the DCC waveforms and thus cause problems. Once the restive short circuit was removed everyting worked perfectly without snubbers. That's why I suggest it is worth double checking the wiring first...

  3. There are arguments both for and against snubbers. In my opinion unless you are building a really large layout such that your DCC bus is really long (say 20m+) then there is really no need for a snubber. I once installed one on the DCC bus of a 2.8m x 2.8m layout powered by an eLink with a 4A power supply and it actually made things worse!I once had a problem that sounds somewhat similar to yours and it eventually turned out to be a wiring fault so I would really recomend double double checking all your wiring. 

  4. From personal experience, I would recommend never using settrack curved points (as you had in your original schematic). They will give no end of problems not least the fact that they have a very long insulated frog section which means that most, if not all, short wheelbase locos will stall on them.

  5. Another ’nail’ was that a significant minority of his models, though highly detailed and looking great, were let down by their chassis and thus were not good runners. Both the 48xx and the 1361 fall into this category. Look great, run poorly. It took 4 attempts before I got a 48xx which ran acceptably and, according to other forums, many other people had a similar problem!

  6. Can anybody confirm how far (or how long) a 2,200 microF capacitor will give With a loco running at a slow speed, but not a crawl?

    I tried the stay alive supplied with a DCC Concepts zen decoder and at bes it appeared to keep the decoder alive for a few milli-secs and a few mm in distance, certainly less than the distance over a dead frog

  7. Thing is, most commercially available stay alives, such as those available from TCS, are a hell of lot higher capacity than 2,200 microF. Think more in the way of 500,000 microF and also use super-Capacitors rather than electrolytics Which are a lot more expensive. I have one which will keep a loco running for over 30 secs at slow speed! Now whether 30 secs running time is actually needed is another question...

  8. The smallest decoder I have come across so far is the Lenz silver mini+ at 11.5 x 7.5 x 2.6 mm, they are a bit more expensive than the X9659 though. It has 7 wires but you can cut off or unsolder the 3 function wires that you don't need

     

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  9. @Ben, I'm pretty certain the answer is no, the ange is slightly different.

    Peco points (and thus I assume their cross-overs) work on a 12 degree divergence angle whilst Hornby Express points are 11.25 degrees (i.e. half the 22.5 degrees of Hornby Standatd points). 3/4 degree isn't much but it will probably be enough to stop everything cleanly fitting together.

  10. Parallel Track spacing for Peco streamline is 50mm, whilst spacing for Peco and Hornby set-track is 67mm.

    If you put a Peco ST202 straight (79mm) between a cross-over made of streamline points it pretty much gives you 67mm spacing without having to cut a piece of flexi-track specially

  11. So you are predicting MS will introduce a USB bug affecting every laptop/PC currently in creation and never fix it, thus condemning RM?  I think not.

    Not exactly what I said. The story going around that there is a USB bug that affects some upgrades, not all. And if it exists maybe Microsoft will fix it, maybe they won't. After all, as far as I know, they have not fixed the 'bug' they introduced in Win10 that stoppedRailmaste working for a considerable number of people. It was HRMS who modified Railmaster to work around the problem instead. 

  12. Windows 10 aniversary update has just been released by Microsoft and will be arriving on your Windows 10 PC very shortly as an automatic upgrade. There have been rumours in teccy-world that on some PCs it breaks USB connectivity, so there is a chance it could break RailMaster's connection to the E-Link/Elite again. If this happens it may well be the final nail in the coffin and may cause Hornby to pull RailMaster alltogether. I hope not, because I am still patiently waiting for LD...

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