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Three way point with Cobalt motors - no power to blades


Gordonotron

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Hi everyone,

Looking for a bit of help, I have two Peco E199 Three Way points back to back on a new layout. The lanes in seem fine with insulating points on the four frog rails but I either have no power to the blades or the frogs. At this point I suspect it is the rails but I can't even short the rails with a feed from a live rail to either frog or blades. The system also isn't shorting if the blades are forced over.

 

So the summary:

feed on rails between both points

insulating joiners on all four frog rails (8 in total)

Four cobalt DCC motors installed with two frogs to the rear motor and one to the most forward motor

 

Have a missed anything silly? or is something not right?

Also does anyone know how I can test the track feed with a multimeter? Would make testing where the issue lies much easier.

 

Thanks very much

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Four cobalt DCC motors installed with two frogs to the rear motor and one to the most forward motor

 

Have a missed anything silly? or is something not right?

Also does anyone know how I can test the track feed with a multimeter? Would make testing where the issue lies much easier.

Clearly something wrong, but I can't say what.   I am concerned about how you say the frogs are connected to different motors, but without a diagram its impossible to say whether your description is correct.

 

For testing, disconnect the DCC power to the track, switch the multimeter to "resistance" (or even better "continuity beeper" if you have that option on the meter), and measure one rail to its connected blade, then the connected frog, etc.. Resistance should be zero, or nearly zero (or a continuity beeper will beep) for any rails which should have the same power.  Switch the turnout motors, and check again through rail, blades, to frog(s), etc..

 

- Nigel

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  • RMweb Gold

Which type of Cobalt are you using?

This might make a difference.

 

This link explains how to wire up a 3 way point, hopefully you should be able to see how yours is different.

 

http://www.dccconcepts.com/vamr/dcc-advice-11-wiring-pointwork-and-special-track-conditions-for-dc-or-dcc

 

A photo of page 7 of the above link:-

 

post-6745-0-61297100-1436855330_thumb.png

 

 

Showing the bottom connections:-

 

post-6745-0-36713300-1436855654_thumb.png

 

 

Cheers

 

Ian

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  • RMweb Gold

It's also highly recommended to solder a bonding wire to the 3 rails on each side, as it's ever so easy to get a dead blade caused by poor contact.  I appreciate the points are already laid but if you can do this it will improve reliability no end. If you look underneath the turnouts you will see where Peco have already helpfully cut the webbing for you to do this. And it's best to not only bond these 3 rails together but to also make the bonding wire a DCC dropper too.

 

I have 3 of these turnouts and when I first used them I had reliability issues especially after ballasting and painting, so when the turnouts were re-used for my current layout I put the bonding wires in and there's been no problem since.

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