*** This certainly looks like communication problems. Test is connect the system to a simple loop of track and see if the problem repeats. Try and let us know
Re wiring: For an 80 foot main line the 3 points are totally inadequate - especially with set track. I would think no more than 4 to 6 feet between pairs of droppers would be sensible.
The use of the term feeders makes me wonder too. does that mean pairs of thin wire from controller to track at 3 points?
The bus on this layout should be following the main line under the board and be certainly not less than 32/.02 wire. If its a long thin layout its getting big enough to consider twisting the 2 wires of the bus at a rate of about 4 turns per foot too in order to reduce inductance. If twisting is too hard (it can be) then just separate the wires by 100mm or more.
The wire weight is NOT a current draw thing - its to do with voltage drop and keeping things in shape bus communication wise.
the Power unit should connect to the bus at the approximate mid point, and ideally the bus should not be a ring. there should be droppers from bus to rails each few feet.
Each end of the bus should be terminated/filtered. The termination/filter should be one 150 ohm resistor (about 1/2 watt) and one 0.10 Microfarad ceramic disc capacitor (sometimes called a monolithic capacitor). The wiring is bus wire 1 to lead 1 of resistor, lead 2 of resistor to lead 1 of capacitor, lead 2 of capacitor to bus wire 2. No component is polarity sensitive.
Until the layout is wired properly there's not much point further troubleshooting really....
Regards
Richard
QUOTE (upnick @ 9 Dec 2008, 09:15)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I got the niformation from my friend this evening
What Scale ................. N Scale
Big layout or small layout ............ Large 80 foot main line run
Describe the wiring structure for the layout ................... one section with three feeding points on main line
Does it happen with all locos ................................Yes
Does it happen in any particular part of the layout ........................... No ... anywhere
Age of layout ......................... Less than 1 yr
Set track or flex ............... All Set Track Kato make
Decoder brand Pre-fitted ............ Athearn Challenger loco, ~ MRC self fitted in Kato P8, ~ Loc-Sound in Bachmann J Class fitted by Digitrains And, ~ ? Can't find instruction book yet! in Kato GS4 {Post modification} Fitted by
Power supply brand ........................... Gauge-master / MRC Prodigy 2
Hope it helps Richard, many thanks.
