Rigaman

Many thanks to GU for his excellent advice. I have now solved my problem. I decided to buy a DCCconcepts Alpha Meter to check my track voltage and when I found one at 20% off at Rails of Sheffield it settled the decision. This has shown that my DCC track voltage is around 15.6v and therefore good. The problem had to lie elsewhere and I decided to first look at some of the CVs I'd changed to implement ABC braking. When I changed CV134 back to its original state, the problem went away! Unfortunately ABC doesn't now seem to work but that's another problem and I'm happy to play with that myself for a while. Thank you all who have commented on my problem. I do appreciate it.

Thanks very much for the reply. I have tried contacting ESU at the end of last week (and asked if they would reply even if it was "we won't help") but have yet to receive any answer. I'll post if I do. I am using a multimeter to measure the track voltage and the reason for that was the slow running of my engines. Even without using sound they are really slow which wasn't the case until a couple of months ago. I'm also experimenting with ABC and at this voltage there is no effect whatsoever regardless of whether I have ABC on or off! When I tried previously there certainly was an effect - even if I was still coming to grips with which CVs needed adjusting in which directions to achieve the stopping distance I wanted. If no solutions come forward, it'll have to be a new system but I appreciate people's time replying to my problem.

I've now tried connecting different wires to the track output but I'm still getting the same result - around 11v. I now wonder whether the unit is faulty which probably means it's kaput. I recognise that I didn't always follow the PIko shutdown process as per the manual. So I wonder whether that has done the damage.

Thanks for the reply. My power supply is the basic 2.25A 16V one. I've checked the output voltage and its delivering 16v DC so that seems OK. The output voltage from the Smart Control remains at around 11v AC. I'll investigate the cables connecting the box to the main track and the programming track, although they haven't been moved for months and certainly not prior to the problem appearing. I really appreciate the help and the references for new power supplies. I'll repost when I've investigated the cables some more.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do if your SmartControl "loses" power? Having run successfully for a long time, my SmartControl now only outputs around 11 volts which is insufficient for running my OO gauge layout. I've tried contacting Piko through their Technical Support via email but I'm now nearly two weeks into waiting for an answer. Having seen the comment about Piko discontinuing SmartControl (and there now being no starter sets using it on their website), am I flogging a dead horse and so should Iook for a new system? When it worked it was great and I really like the handset which still works making me loathe to throw it away.