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Crosland

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Everything posted by Crosland

  1. I am asking on behalf of a SPROG user who has purchased a new loco fitted with a LokSound Micro. I won't name the suppliers just yet. I hope I have the problem description correct: the loco works OK after initial programming. On subsequent programming attempts (e.g. to tweak the volume) the decoder cannot be read and the loco is then dead. A decoder reset has no effect. The retailer has replaced the decoder (twice) saying it is "corrupt", but we doubt they did any meaningful investigation. This has now happened for a third time. The SPROG works with all of the customers other decoders, including normal LokSound, without problem. Could the particular sound file have a bug? Is anyone successfully using LokSound micro with a SPROG? Whose sound file? Andrew Crosland sprog-dcc.co.uk
  2. I would rather shop somewhere like Farnell for this type of kit, e.g. https://uk.farnell.com/tenma/72-2685/bench-power-supply-1-ch-30v-3a/dp/2563981 A bit more expensive but you know who you are dealing with and returns are a lot easier.
  3. That's not how servos work. The control to a servo is a pulse with the width of the pulse determining the servo position, anywhere between the limits of travel for that servo (what you call "on" and "off"). If the control pulse is turned off when when the desired position is reached then analog servos will shut down completely and draw very little current. The friction in the gearing holds the position. Digital servos are different and they (or at least some) will continue to actively drive the motor to hold the last position if the control pulse is turned off. It's important not to drive a servo hard against a stop if you want to minimise the current draw. Always use some kind of flexible coupling such as an omega loop that allows the servo to reach its set position.
  4. I would echo everything Nigel says.
  5. Another way is two parallel strips of self adhesive copper with the LEDs soldered across them. You can even make a pattern out of the strips to accommodate resistors and series connection[1] of some LEDs. The strips can be mounted on thin plasticard, or even card. [1] with track voltage of 12 V or more you can connect two or more LEDs in series. Use a smaller current limit resistor. If one LED is 5mA, any number in series will still be only 5 mA. How many you can connect in series depends on the track voltage and the forward voltage of the LEDs. Eight parallel LEDs could be replaced by four strings of two LEDs, with the strings in parallel, and halve the current required. Always use a separate resistor for each LED or string of LEDs. I would experiment on the bench.
  6. Do you really need that much current? How many trains actually running at once? Will you be using DCC powered accessories? I am not a fan of large boosters and would go for smaller boosters, with one dedicated to a separate accessory bus, if required. With lower current boosters, if there is a fault, the fault current will be that much lower, reducing the risk of anything bad happening.
  7. Is the seller a business? Are they VAT registered? In which case there is VAT on secondhand goods. Did the price include or exclude VAT? Have you asked the seller?
  8. I would be looking at Back EMF settings, it sounds like the control loop is out of kilter, but I know very little about this decoder. If you can disable BEMF, try doing that to start with.
  9. At worst, it's fried. At best, it's simply lost it's mind. Have you tried reprogramming the DS-64?
  10. Last time I tried there was an hour wait on the phone. They do also pay up readily when things go missing. I just wish they offered higher compensation limits for international services.
  11. Not if they were left with a neighbour or have been delivered to the wrong place. It does happen.
  12. In my neck of the woods, it's been like that for some time. They still sometimes send a separate person, but not very often. The time of the rounds varies according to day of the week. You can see this when booking a collection. Today , for example, it's a 4-hr window between 12:30 and 4:30. Our postie explained that their shifts vary and they prioritise Monday deliveries for earlier in the day. It seems this is for stuff that was posted over the weekend but mid-week deliveries are scheduled later to allow more time for sorting stuff posted the day before. It's great that they print and bring labels too, but the free collection offer expires at the end of this month.
  13. That doesn't necessarily follow. We were able to carry on business as normal throughout the pandemic with minor substitutions (e.g., we redesigned a PCB to use a different package) and minimal price increases. We certainly don't have the buying power of ESU or Zimo but our production partner was able to source everything. There was a lot of scalping going on but we managed to avoid it.
  14. Why do you need such long run times?
  15. Just remember that going from 4k to 12k is not 3x resolution improvement. Going from 8k to 12k is not 1.5x. They're actually 1.7x and 1.2x respectively (square root of the pixel count increase).
  16. So we are where we were in the 70s/80s with multiple incompatible systems. Hornby were in that mix with Zero-1. DCC, as we know it today, developed, but it took time and NMRA standardisation. Perhaps, one day, there will be an industry standard DCC over Bluetooth system with interoperability between manufacturers.
  17. I'm 99.9% certain the four-in-a-row resistors are the current sense for the DCC output and you have suffered a catastrophic overload, and let the magic smoke out. It looks like it was in a real hurry to escape one of the resistors. It's mechanical damage only in the sense that the overheating destroyed them. They will not be hard to replace if you can still read the value on one of them, but you need to identify and fix the cause first. After that you may find the output MOSFETs are also blown, even if there's no obvious damage. They are the block of 4-components just above the resistors. They will be much easier to remove with a hot-air de-soldering tool.
  18. I had to tweak the SPROG firmware to enable it to handle large Zimo decoders (specifically an MX695, which looks similar). It was specific to the way the SPROG senses the current at start up and then discriminates the programming acknowledge pulses. I doubt the prodigy advance works the same way as the SPROG but it could well be something related to these decoders and the Prodigy. Having said that, the fact that you don't get the usual motor pulsing is odd. Is it a particularly efficient coreless motor in the loco? It might not be drawing enough current for the Prodigy to see the acknowledge pulse. The classic bodge in this case is a resistor across the programming track. Choose something that, for the Prodigy programming track voltage, gives a standing current of, say, 50mA, and experiment from there. Andrew Crosland
  19. I hate to see disappointed customers. There are instructions on our download page about getting an old SPROG II (not a IIv3 or IIv4) with newer versions of Windows. We decided it wasn't worth the money to sign the drivers and then Microsoft tightened up the rules. Since Win 8 you need to disable driver signature enforcement when installing the drivers. Alternatively you can order an upgrade, which requires the SPROG to be returned to us. This will make the old SPROG work with the latest signed drivers from FTDI so you don't have to jump through hoops. look for the SPROG II signed driver upgrade on our website. It should work fine with an XP computer. I would try and remove any drivers and then try installing the drivers again. It's a two step process, once for the basic USB serial drivers and again for the SPROG itself. Windows will prompt you to accept the unsigned drivers. Andrew Crosland www.sprog-dcc.co.uk
  20. Did you try the internet archive? I don't have the link, nor do I have Digikeijs, so haven't tried it myself.
  21. With my pedants hat on, they are functions. See NMRA standard S-9.2.2 where the forward and reverse headlight functions can be mapped to various output wires.
  22. So what does this mean https://us13.campaign-archive.com/?u=9687385558a1289cf97083ac7&id=5cedcc1305 ? It would seem Hornby have decided to go against established standards, no surprise there, then.
  23. It's the rubber breaking down. An old fashioned pencil eraser is good for cleaning the PCB, but, as you say, the problem will recur in time.
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