Question ?, Do, Uncoupling Magnet's, Interfere with Decoder's.

[David Todd]

When fitting magnet's to track, for uncoupling (Kadees), would the magnetic field, interfere/damage  decoders or speaker's

that are fitted at chassis level, or in battery boxes,fuel tank's.

 

I ask this for a friend who does not have internet.

 

Frankly, I feel this is quite safe, as we would not be using them.

 

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

When fitting magnet's to track, for uncoupling (Kadees), would the magnetic field, interfere/damage  decoders or speaker's

that are fitted at chassis level, or in battery boxes,fuel tank's.

 

I ask this for a friend who does not have internet.

 

Frankly, I feel this is quite safe, as we would not be using them.

 

I have not heard of any problems using magnets with decoders.

 

I personally have used neomydium magnets at sleeper height to operate uncoupling and have had no problems with my all sound equipped fleet.

 

The motor itself generates far more electrical activity and again, no problems that can be ascribed to magnetic interference.

[peter220950]

I haven't noticed any effect on DCC traction chips, there may be minor issues with sound, but I would suggest that if it were a real problem it would have been highlighted on here by now. There was a brief discussion on the sound aspects here:-

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/84330-sound-magnets/

 

I've not noticed any sound issues with Sprat and WInkle coupling magnets in the track, after all there are magnets and magnetic fields floating around from the motors. There's certainly no suggestion anywhere, that I've seen, that they would cause damage.

 

Peter

[two tone green]

I have some Kadee magnets in the track on my O gauge layout set at the right height using their gauge and I can hear a slight difference in the sound on my locos as they pass over them when one of the speakers is in the fuel tank.  

 

But certainly no effect on the decoders.

[David Todd]

Thank you, for taking the time to reply.

[orford]

The short answer is 'no' - although with a 'but'................

 

I have used Kadee's for 40 years and switched to DCC/sound about 8 years ago. There is no problem whatsoever with permanent/delayed Kadee magnets fitted between the track, or with the large under the track permanent magnets (though these latter type are generally too strong for 'OO' use anyway). I would however state that I personally found that the electrically operated Kadee magnets did interfere with the sound and also with my servo-operated signals, causing the arms to spin wildly about their posts when the electro-magnets were energised.

 

So no problems at all with permanent magnet uncouplers so far as DCC decoders are concerned, or so far as DCC/sound is concerned - but beware of using Kadee electro-magnets.

Edited September 8, 2015 by orford

[Bill Radford]

Under track magnets do affect Hornby recent ringfield DC motors - I have got a couple of class 153s and a class 121 bubble car that slow noticeably over magnets.

[mikeg]

I have decoders that are mounted directly to the motor casing and you can't get a chip closer that that to a magnet and I have not had any adverse effects with the operation of the locos.

 

regards

 

mike g

[Grovenor]

I would however state that I personally found that the electrically operated Kadee magnets did interfere with the sound and also with my servo-operated signals, causing the arms to spin wildly about their posts when the electro-magnets were energised.

Kadee electromagnets can interfere with a lot of things, when I first changed to DCC I had oproblems with erratic behaviour from decoders. Eventually realised that the problem came whenever I took my finger off the magnet button. This is caused by the large back emf spike generated by the magnet when current is interrupted. Same as generates the sparks in your car engine. Simple solution to fit a diode across the coil to allow the current to die off gradually. You do have to run the uncoulers on DC for this, but they work better on DC anyway.

Regards

[Steve Williams]

I have just acquired a Lifelike USRA 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive with sound. It has a QSI decoder. When I used it on my test track set-up which has several Kadee under-track magnets, whenever the tender went over the magnets, which is where you have to wave the magic wand to reset, the whistle would sound several times and there would be several audio repeats of the word 'MAX'. I also found that it would reset the sound volume from 45 (which I had set it to), back to 50 (which was my previous setting).  It did this at every magnet except one. It was as though it was trying to go through a partial reset routine. I have no idea why the word 'MAX' is even in the sound file, unless they are all Vestappen fans!

 

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences with QSI. I have a couple of diesel locos with their decoders fitted and have not been aware of any issues.

[Geep7]

3 hours ago, Steve Williams said:

I have just acquired a Lifelike USRA 2-8-8-2 steam locomotive with sound. It has a QSI decoder. When I used it on my test track set-up which has several Kadee under-track magnets, whenever the tender went over the magnets, which is where you have to wave the magic wand to reset, the whistle would sound several times and there would be several audio repeats of the word 'MAX'. I also found that it would reset the sound volume from 45 (which I had set it to), back to 50 (which was my previous setting).  It did this at every magnet except one. It was as though it was trying to go through a partial reset routine. I have no idea why the word 'MAX' is even in the sound file, unless they are all Vestappen fans!

 

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has had similar experiences with QSI. I have a couple of diesel locos with their decoders fitted and have not been aware of any issues.

I'm sure I recall this happening with one of my Proto 2000 locos with QSI sound, which came with a little magic wand as well..... The magic wand allows you to "program" the decoder, and I think one of the movements with the wand was to increase (or decrease) the sound level. The decoder says the word MAX when it's reached the max volume level.

The magic wand actuates a relay switch in the tender, and depending on how close it is to the track, it can be affected by the under track magnets, which would explain why the diesels are fine. I think it was resolved by either detaching the relay switch or moving it further away from track level.

 

[Steve Williams]

17 hours ago, Geep7 said:

I'm sure I recall this happening with one of my Proto 2000 locos with QSI sound, which came with a little magic wand as well..... The magic wand allows you to "program" the decoder, and I think one of the movements with the wand was to increase (or decrease) the sound level. The decoder says the word MAX when it's reached the max volume level.

The magic wand actuates a relay switch in the tender, and depending on how close it is to the track, it can be affected by the under track magnets, which would explain why the diesels are fine. I think it was resolved by either detaching the relay switch or moving it further away from track level.

 

Aaah!  That sounds a distinct possibility. I had read about being able to vary the volume with the wand, but had not made the connection with the word 'MAX'.  Thanks for that info.