Converting Tenshudo power bogie to DCC

[tender]

I have used the small Tenshudo bogies with no problems using Loksound, Lokpilot, TCS, DCCconcepts decoders.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

Hi Ian.

I've just wired my Tenshudo up with a TSC decoder and the slow speed performance (speed step 4 and below) is pretty poor. Tried a Bachmann decoder and it was worse.

Have you any suggestions regarding CV's for the TSC decoder?

 

Ray.

[BR(S)]

Whenever you use multiple powered bogies - on dc, ac, or dcc, its alway important to SHARE the power pickup between them, so that they operate in cooperative parallel at all times, with the benefit of extra wheels picking up, and not as a bucking bronco competative arrangement .... an EFE tube train is light enough without adding pickup problems caused by fighting motors!

 

DCC requires more consistant pickup than analogue because of its serial command structure - which takes time to send a complete command, and this must be uninterrupted or it has to wait until the next time it is transmitted: consider a new speed command, accelerating from rest - as you rotate the control knob... if only one motor/decoder understood the message, only it would change speed...causing a set of wheels to lift perhaps ... then the other motor/decoder catches up .......

A single decoder of sufficient rating to drive the motor bogies in parallel is the best way of matching 4 identical Tenshodo power bogies. [Or consider prototype practice, and wire 2 in series for a reduced speed range)

 

Just resurrecting this thread as I would like to hard wire a single decoder to the two Tenshodo motors I use in my EFE 1962 stock.  

 

To do this, do the black/red and orange/grey wires have to go to the relevant places on both motor bogies (i.e. I would be soldering two of each colour wire, one to each motor)? 

[Phil S]

That would be my interpretation of how to wire them, yes. - Also don't forget to parallel both of the the pickup wires as well - and and from any other bogies on which power can be picked up without incurring more problems (such as multi-pole plugs between coaches ....  which can be more expensive than decoders!

 

Have you checked that both Tenshodos are both behaving well - running at similar speeds on their own?

[Andy Reichert]

Just make sure that neither motor wire remains (or ends up)  connected to any of the track pick-ups. Or you will have an instantly dead decoder.

 

I think the Tenshodo is the truck where the pickups are mechanically connected to the motor as supplied, and so need careful modification.

 

e.g. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25199

[BR(S)]

With thanks to those who offered advice, I'm pleased to report a successful conversion to DCC of two parallel-wired Tenshodo motors. 

 

I used a Bachmann 36-553 decoder.  Running is erratic at factory settings, which normally means the Back-EMF values need adjusting.  As recommended for "smaller, lighter motors" in the Bachmann 36-553 instruction leaflet, I set CV54 to a low value (1) and CV55 to a high value (63).  Running is now very smooth and the two motors easily cope with a 4-car EFE 1962 stock train with its original wheels on the non-motorised coaches. 

 

I'm only running the train back-and-forth on a short section of track with a small curve and a point that's always set for the straight route, so I can't say what the running would be like over more complex trackwork.