ARC PRO issues

[simonjrwinter]

I wonder if anyone can advise me here. I have a permanent 8x4 layout with an arc pro power base. After a while I was noticing jerky motion in the cars and dead spots, so I’ve spent time soldering every piece of track to its neighbour so it’s now not relying on the connections made by the track itself. In digital mode, it now runs superbly and I’m able to trickle the cars around if I want to. 

However in analogue mode, the controllers are ridiculously sensitive .....1mm of movement sends the cars off the track at pretty much top speed. It’s so bad it’s pretty much impossible to complete a lap without crashing unless you come right off the throttle. 

Before I did the soldering, everything worked fine. I’m very confused. Any advice ?

simon

[Andy P.]

That behavior is common if the cars still have digital chips in place and in particular with the latest Revision H DPR chips.

Take the chips out and the cars should behave better.

Ideally only ue analog cars in analog mode.

[MIleage712]

The solution Andy provides may well cure your problem.

One quick thing to try would be to cycle the power on your powerbase when you switch from digital to analog. Obviously if you're using an app try checking your controller profile etc. 

 

I have seen very few tracks where every piece is soldered to the next. I have never seen such and had cars show the issue you describe here. 

Check all of soldering to make sure you have not brideged curcuits or wired them in parallel which might increase power to your cars. Maybe you have something crossed. Especially check around lane changers, pit stops and/or places where you go beyond two lanes and then back down to two lanes. Also at lane changers I typically don't jumper those I would use wire to carry power from the track section just before the the rails of the track just after. Finally on this type of issue make sure you are not using the old analog criss/cross tracks or if so there are an even number of them in your layout.

I have a lot of chips including Revision H DPR chips. I have noticed some revisions exhibit different characteristics. Though I've not had a car with a Revision H chip that had odd throttle response such as you described when on an Analog track. I have not soldered every piece of track together, but I have put jumpers at various places around my track. (soldering every piece would take some doing on my track (which is about 96-100ft in lap length and four lanes). 

Good luck. If you continue to have trouble try looking for an answer on soltform.com there are a lot of highly experienced enthusiast on that forum that might have some additional insight. 

[gorp]

Rev H is the only scaly chip that has a speed/control problem on arc pro analog. 

Earlier chips work great on it.