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richard carr

Western Thunderer
Hi Jordan

Looking at that I'm not sure that 3 amps is enough, do you have a large speaker attached as well ?

I have Heljan Class 128 parcels DMU, I tried to get away with a small decoder and a big speaker and it behaved as you describe above, the speaker was the problem once I got rid of that and used a more modest one that the decoder could power it has been fine.

In your case though I could see that a large motor like that with all the drive shafts is going to draw a lot of current do you have a ramp meter to measure it ?

Have you got a bigger decoder that you could try it with ?

Richard
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Jordan,
3A is probably a bit marginal, as Richard says. My second thought after that is to set CV29 to digital-only operation. Mechanically, it looks okay - I've got some bits here to ball-race and belt-drive Weaver mechanisms to lower the friction if you really get stuck: That would reduce noise and current demands, but I don't know how far that would help. Worth noting that @Yorkshire Dave has a Red Caboose GP running with one of those big Pittman motors with an ESU 'L', but the Atlas drive is appreciably less sticky than that from Weaver (I have both types here). Of course, the motors might not be the exact same type, but even then the extra friction can't help.

It'd be interesting to know the current draw and whether sorting out CV29 helps.

The decoder reset was worth doing, just in case there was an errant setting somewhere. I do that on installation as a matter of routine.

Steph
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Hi Jordan

I agree, it's not a decoder issue and as Steph has mentioned I use a Loksound L decoder to drive a Pittman motor and two speakers in a Red Caboose GP9.

I'll hook up my spare Loksound L to a Weaver drive loco over the weekend to see what happens and report my findings.

I would have checked what you have already checked and a few more:
Have you tried operating the loco on an isolated section of track not connected to the layout?
Are you able to disconnect the lead truck and try the decoder with the rear drive truck to see is that works satisfactorily?

Other things I would also check for if you have the loco apart are split gears in the gearboxes as I've had weaver gears split and the drive shaft connection, again I have one split and is held here with a cable tie.

U23B 025.jpg
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Jordan,
That's great. I see those turn up occasionally and could see they'd be useful if they had enough grunt. Can the loco still spin its wheels or does the motor stall if the loco is stopped from moving?

Steph
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
I don't know, I haven't tried a stall test - or a haulage capacity test yet either :oops:
It's a bit slow at top speed too because I replaced the lower 12-tooth gear on the tower with an 18-tooth. She sure can crawl though!!
Next I need to work out if I can change the steps when the engine notch-up sounds occur, as she sounds like the engine's racing off when she's still moving rather slowly. In hindsight maybe the change of cog wasn't really necessary :rolleyes: but it's done now.
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
Hi Jordan , that motor looks very much like the motors fitted in Heljan O gauge locos .
Cheers Paul
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Paul,

They're not really similar; the Heljan motors are fairly cheap generic Chinese 385-series motors; this is Japanese, a different size, very much more powerful and has seven rather than 5-poles, IIRC. It's a much more refined and expensive beast altogether!

Steph
 
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