Is my stay alive working? ?

[Piemanlarger]

I swapped a zimo sound chip into a kit built (O gauge ) 0-6-2T loco as it was stalling occasionally on points.

 

It had a V4 loksound in it which I'm not sure if stay alive can be added to?

If so I probably not got the eyes for it these days!

 

As the zimo has a stay alive already attached I presumed it would stop the stalling.

 

However on my rolling road it's still stalling and cutting out completely. 

 

So is the stay alive work ??

 

I noticedar this zimo chip being the latest one I purchased has a different size capacitor to one that came with a chip in bought about 4 years ago.

Does size matter ??

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Several factors that matter, and the current draw of the loco might be the one that is mattering here.

 

1 hour ago, Piemanlarger said:

I swapped a zimo sound chip into a kit built (O gauge ) 0-6-2T loco as it was stalling occasionally on points...

 

As the zimo has a stay alive already attached I presumed it would stop the stalling.

 

However on my rolling road it's still stalling and cutting out completely...

From stalling on points it is now stalling on what should be plain track equivalent. (You would be best advised to test the Zimo decoder 'like for like' on the layout, to remove the potential effect of a malfunctioning rolling road adding to the problem set.)

 

Both decoders could be cutting out because their over current protection is kicking in. And that's only one possibility, and a problem which stay alive cannot help with, any more than an elastoplast can cure sciatica...

[Nigelcliffe]

The two factors which matter are the current draw of the loco, and energy stored in the capacitor (Farad (F) or microFarad (uF) is proxy for energy stored).   A related issue is the physical size of the capacitor - what matters is the energy stored in the available space inside the loco, and in some cases its necessary to use more expensive capacitor types to achieve useful amounts of energy storage in the available space.  

 

Yes, if you can solder, a stay-alive can be fitted to LokSound V4 and V5 decoders.  With some of the multi-pin connections (Plux, Next, MTC21, etc) then some of the pins which can be used for stay-alive devices are present in the loco, so that can remove the need to solder to a decoder. 

 

In most cases, the capacitors shipped with decoders are pathetically small in storage terms, and their impact is negligible.  Higher energy storage capacitors are needed to have useful effects.  

 

 

 

 

[Piemanlarger]

1 hour ago, Nigelcliffe said:

The two factors which matter are the current draw of the loco, and energy stored in the capacitor (Farad (F) or microFarad (uF) is proxy for energy stored).   A related issue is the physical size of the capacitor - what matters is the energy stored in the available space inside the loco, and in some cases its necessary to use more expensive capacitor types to achieve useful amounts of energy storage in the available space.  

 

Yes, if you can solder, a stay-alive can be fitted to LokSound V4 and V5 decoders.  With some of the multi-pin connections (Plux, Next, MTC21, etc) then some of the pins which can be used for stay-alive devices are present in the loco, so that can remove the need to solder to a decoder. 

 

In most cases, the capacitors shipped with decoders are pathetically small in storage terms, and their impact is negligible.  Higher energy storage capacitors are needed to have useful effects.  

 

 

 

 

Interesting and thank you.

 

I shall take the body off and look at what capacity it states on the capacitor. 

 

Where does one solder a hard wired v4 loksound, if one wanted to add a capacitor??

[Nigelcliffe]

30 minutes ago, Piemanlarger said:

Interesting and thank you.

 

I shall take the body off and look at what capacity it states on the capacitor. 

 

Where does one solder a hard wired v4 loksound, if one wanted to add a capacitor??

 

Read the ESU manual - its documented in there, with specifics as to which pads to connect.   Page 26 of the edition I downloaded from the ESU website.   As the connection shows the use of a charge/discharge circuit (resistor and diode), the same could be used from the decoder positive and decoder ground connections available through the MTC21, NeXT, PLuX connectors.  (diagrams pages 12 to 14 cover these, but as they are standard connectors, the connections are part of the standard).  

 

- Nigel