[upnick]

Hi all,
Having a gaugemaster loco tester for DC and i can see the amperage pull before conversion to DCC, but how can i test consitently after a conversion epecially for sound equipped locos as i have heard because of the addition of sound they pull more amps. i am running N guage.
I have seen locos are stalled to read the amperage and have heard this does not bode well for the decoder, is there a loco tester for DCC as some of my farish locos that have had the bottom brush holder replaced with the spencer kit will not run of course on DC/ or do i have the decoder (M1) not set for DC operation, as to the majority of my american stock fitted with drop in boards they run fine on both.

Best Regards

 

[Martin71]

Hi

If you have a multimeter put it in series with 1 of your tracks on the test tracks that the sound loco is on. Make sure you do the following:

Switch off power. Check you have the lead in the correct position for testing amps on your multimeter. Connect multimeter in series with 1 test track. Confirm. Switch on and measure amps.

Why do you need to do a stall test? I think it is a bit silly, really. Someone has started it years ago and everyone jumped on the band wagon. Is the loco really going to stall like that on your layout? I doubt it.

A new hornby/bachmann loco will pull max average 280-320mA and an older loco like a Trang about 550-650mA.

My decoder tester is idle now why test? I have installed so many decoders now no failures. It only fails when I make a mistake and then its handy to see what part I have fried.

Just on a different note with amps I was on a electrical safety course last week and saw some photo's of what can happen when you have the wrong settings on your multimeter. The sparky was testing voltage on a industrial board. His offside was testing amps (why they didnt have a clamp meter I dont know) and by accident he picked up the other multimeter and tested across 2 phases with it set on Amps. The fuse 10 A fuse in the multimeter blew but the fault voltage was huge and the air ionized between the 2 probes, carried current and boom. 70% burns to his body. Board destroyed.

My point Safety first, check your setting on the multimeter before you test, 12 volts will blow your fuse in the multimeter if you measure volts with it set on amps.

m

 

[Richard Johnson]

QUOTE (upnick @ 2 Aug 2008, 06:19) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi all,
Having a gaugemaster loco tester for DC and i can see the amperage pull before conversion to DCC, but how can i test consitently after a conversion epecially for sound equipped locos as i have heard because of the addition of sound they pull more amps. i am running N guage.
I have seen locos are stalled to read the amperage and have heard this does not bode well for the decoder, is there a loco tester for DCC as some of my farish locos that have had the bottom brush holder replaced with the spencer kit will not run of course on DC/ or do i have the decoder (M1) not set for DC operation, as to the majority of my american stock fitted with drop in boards they run fine on both.

Best Regards

Nick

A motor will draw no more after conversion than it did before... Sound will add only a few mA to the overall current draw. I doubt you will ever exceed 150 to 200mA at the absolute worst with sound.

The decoder should run on DC no problem after conversion - it'll just need a little more turning of the knob before it starts.

By default the M1 CV's are set to "on" for DC running.

Check CV29 - for DC enabled if its got a short address it should be 6, if long, 38

Regards
Richard
DCCconcepts

 

[upnick]

Many thanks gents, will try it out in the morning