Heljan Class 26 - best decoder?

[ColHut]

G'day,

 

 I got one of these  to haul my track cleaners around.  I have a fair amount of under board loops to clean.  I had fitted the Class 26 with a Zen Nano and it performed well with the Dapol Vacuum unit (Great bit of kit) but I have come unstuck with the CMX.  I was testing the Class 26's capacity to haul the CMX up the banks, and trying to decide whether it need a banking engine or could haul it by itself.  Unfortunately it stalled and appears to have fried the chip.  Tests showed that it does not respond and  causes a constant short, but if the blanking plug is replaced it runs fine again on DC.

 

Looking into the matter it seems as if the 750mA/1A peak for the Nano might be just too low for peak current draw on the class 26 on maximum draw at stall.  A little disappointing.

 

There is not a lot of space under the hood so would appreciate anyone's recommendation.

 

regards

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

There's ample space inside for a regular HO decoder. Mine have the Lenz Standard (8 pin wired plug) which is pretty large compared to more recent designs, and it went in the 26/0 models with no more trouble than insert plug, tack down decoder on mechanism location, replace body; and does the job extremely well. Rated at 1A continuous and never yet seen it troubled by the 'large' Heljan motor fitted to most of their product, which typically draw in the range  200mA - 700mA in operation.

 

This decoder has current draw overload protection and a warranty too, though neither feature has ever been tested; which includes trying the Baby Deltic (which has much the same mechanism as the 26) up to a 7kg trainload. It just kept right on going...

[dhjgreen]

I use Lenz in my Heljan 26 and 128. The 128 performed very poorly with a Bachmann decoder, so when I later bought the 26 Lenz was my decoder of choice.

[SRman]

Lenz are good for Heljan (as others above have said), although I like ESU LokPilots as well for my Heljan locos (at least, the non-sound-fitted ones). The ESU decoders, like the Lenz ones, also have overload protection, and sufficient capacity to power the Heljan motor under load.

[ColHut]

Thanks all guys for the advice. I will track down a lenz standard.

 

regards

[ColHut]

A footnote to this while I await my new Lenz standard V2 decoders which are winging their way toward me at the speed, well of a Bleriot monoplane to be honest.

 

Anyway, I took the Zen chip back to DCC Concepts, and it was indeed cactus, although not obvious externally why. To their credit they replaced it without fuss so I can at least use it in another loco which is still chip-less; My J50 pobably. Any way kudos to DCC Concepts for their excellent after sales service here.

 

regards

[NIK]

G'day,

 

 I got one of these  to haul my track cleaners around.  I have a fair amount of under board loops to clean.  I had fitted the Class 26 with a Zen Nano and it performed well with the Dapol Vacuum unit (Great bit of kit) but I have come unstuck with the CMX.  I was testing the Class 26's capacity to haul the CMX up the banks, and trying to decide whether it need a banking engine or could haul it by itself.  Unfortunately it stalled and appears to have fried the chip.  Tests showed that it does not respond and  causes a constant short, but if the blanking plug is replaced it runs fine again on DC.

 

Looking into the matter it seems as if the 750mA/1A peak for the Nano might be just too low for peak current draw on the class 26 on maximum draw at stall.  A little disappointing.

 

There is not a lot of space under the hood so would appreciate anyone's recommendation.

 

regards

 

Hi,

 

It depends on how much the Heljan 26 draws when hauling the CMX up the banks. If the CMX jams (I've seen it happen) the current may go up further.

 

If you can plug the DC shorting plug back in and have a multimeter that reads amps, carefully your fingers over as many wheels as possible and turn up a DC controller and see what the stall current is (I use 12V DC for worst case).

 

If you can test the DC draw of the 26 hauling the CMX up the bank that would be very useful as that will give the maximum continuous current that the DCC decoder must exceed.

 

One of my Heljan 33s that are very similar to the 26 drew 750ma continuous on my rolling road (so no train and no gradient) and all my 33's draw more than an amp when stalled.

 

I can give more advice if its possible to measure the continuous and stalled current draw.

 

Regards

 

Nick

[ColHut]

Thanks Nick,

 

I have just made sure that I cannot run DC on the layout anymore as I have fitted PSX-ARs which are DC Sensitive! I will have a play on the Program track and see what I can do.

 

regards