DCC DCC cry for help

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Thanks Richard,

I have decided to stick with the Lenz system, for a few reasons

It fits my budget and although a replacement set has cost me another £19 including delivery (I got the original at a really good price from Hattons) I will have a full 12 months warranty with it. My fault of course that I have had it 6 months without taking it out of the box...

I have the bought the Lenz power supply to go with it - which isn't faulty so not returnable and although it probably works with other DCC units it's potentially another source of incompatibilities.

Having done the trouble shooting over the last few days I have become familiar with how it works and I like it.
 

Nigel Cliffe

Western Thunderer
You are correct on consumer law Rob, and Hattons do have to deal with it under consumer legislation. However, you could possibly have had it repaired easily, and for free (as its well within manufacturer's warranty), via the Lenz agents, A&H in Northamptonshire. They're usually extremely helpful.
Probably too late for this time around, and fully understand intention to get it replaced (I'd probably have taken the same replacement line). But may be useful information if there are any issues in future.

Lenz power supply is (or was) a dumb big AC transformer. Quite a lot of other makers have moved over to DC input and Switched Mode power supplies, so compatibility is "check carefully". I'm a little surprised that Lenz have persisted with the transformer for so long.


- Nigel
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Whoo Woo, I am finally in business with sound coming from the J63 (albeit very faintly at present).

The new Lenz unit arrived and with some very helpful telephone troubleshooting support from John Kneeshaw we got sound and movement.
Initially we thought that I had a faulty transformer too but got the unit working via the 16AC output from the Gaugemaster unit (which I did try at Nigel's suggestion with the original Lenz unit without any result) but having my problem solving pointed in the right direction. I used my multimeter systematically across all the transformers terminals and discovered that with the wires as I had them it was only putting out 6 volts changing the wiring from Blue+Red Terminals to Blue+ White terminal resulted in it putting out 15 volts so I don't need to send that back.

Again I would like to express my thanks to all who took the time to contribute their thoughts and ideas it is much appreciated.
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Thanks Dave,

The J63 is back together and running very smoothly and noisily on the rolling road. I was a bit surprised that the sound level increased as soon as I stuck the speaker between the frames. I may increase it a bit but not too much once I work out which CV to adjust for the volume. - Although I remembered the wiring, I can't recall any of the CV's that I adjusted when I last ran DCC.

So far I now have one sound and one non fitted locos running on DCC with their running numbers successfully changed from the default 03

The next challenge is how to hide the sound chip etc under the skirts of my tram engine without it interfering with the coupling rods or being too visible from the ends.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
It's great to see that you've got to grips with this. It's been very interesting for an electronics numb skull like me to see the way you attacked the issues and eventually resolved them. All power to WT and it's merry band once again.

I'm stalled at the moment, waiting to get some workshop time, but my Sprog (which says on the case it's a Sprog II v 3) turns out, on loading all the software, to be a Sprog 3. That's no matter as the Sprog 3 apparently has all the Sprog II features plus extras, but I found it most confusing. However, now it's installed on the lap top I just need a day or two, or week.....or month..... to get on top of it. My A3 is standing by at this very moment.

Brian
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Thanks Mike,
I only want to increase it a by a bit so I will work out how to view what it's set at first before any adjustments are made - I only have a little sugar cube speaker and don't want to overwhelm it.
 

Nigel Cliffe

Western Thunderer
Rob,

Glad things are working now.

Are the trams 4-axle or 6-axle ? And I assume 4mm scale. I've built a 4mm tram from the recent short re-run of the Connoisseur kit. Depending on your gearbox and compensation/springing arrangements, there is potentially a lot of space between the axles and frames. I have a DCC decoder and a fair sized stay-alive module down there, meaning the visible insides is boiler (etc) details. There's also a fair bit at the ends if you've got the cow-catcher's fitted (I've put DCC controlled AJ's in there).

The sugar cubes can be re-mounted onto different sized boxes. So long as the volume is roughly the same (give or take a very large margin), they sound fine. The critical bit is having a good seal from the plate to the sound chamber. Plasticard makes a decent sound chamber.


- Nigel
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Hi Nigel,

It's not a tram as such, but a Tram engine (LNER Y6).

This is the beast. I think it would sounds great if I can manage to hide the chip etc.

LNERY6Painted009.jpg

It's 4 wheeled and although there is some room in between the frames at one end, the chip would need to be secured above (as you look at it upside down, but in reality below) one of the chassis screws. Being a tram engine, the inside is quite visible through the many windows so it would be a struggle to hide it inside the body area I think.

I will take a photo of it upside down to illustrate what I mean.
 

Nigel Cliffe

Western Thunderer
Rob
that's the tram I meant, a Wisbech GER Y6 (by six axle I meant the "larger" J70). In mine, in 4mm scale, there is a lot of room between the frames between the driving wheels (DCC decoder and stay-alive module down there). However, I did alter the body-chassis fixings when building it, so they're not on the centre line of the loco - two are outside the frames to give me more clearance for the coupling solenoid mechanisms. Mine is built with a High Level gearbox onto a fixed axle, simple rocking compensation to the other axle, and rod-driven between the wheels. Small Mashima motor horizontal is fully within the boiler shape, though extends below the boiler half-way line.

I'll see if I can photograph mine with body removed to show what was done, but might be a while until I can get me, the tram and camera in the same place!


- Nigel
 

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Thanks Nigel.

I have my eye on one of the 3D print 7mm J70's that Simon BR Blue is doing over on RMweb they look really good for 3d print. It will of course depend on whether I need to sell a kidney to get one....
 

Barnaby

Western Thunderer
Hello Rob, I'm arriving a bit late to your Lenz problems but I found/find this "flow chart" very helpful when trying to work out what is happening.
It will be useful as a reference going forward.
http://youraccount.ekmpowershop2.co...00-hand-controller-version-3.6-[3]-1452-p.jpg

EDIT UPDATE
I should add that the flowchart was for my older manual and as such I had to change all the PAGE numbers to suit the later Ver. 3.6 I now have.
I also added the two additional Sys Set numbers 7 & 8 for Man/Auto and Stack size respectively which are part of the Ver. 3.6 update.
There are a couple of different Ver. 3.6 manuals out there so you should check against yours but the Ref. wording is correct.
 
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