philsandy

Thanks smokebox. I pulled off some wire from the inductor coil, drilled out the solder from the terminal and soldered it back in place. Now runs.

Thanks Nik. I took the photo from Bachmann 's website, I am using a sound decoder. I take it the inductors are soldered in place? Will need to order a replacement PCB from Bachmann.

As the title says, on a Bachmann 3MT 2-6-2. There are 2 spring like components on the PCB (arrowed on photo) and one of them has come away from the PCB at one end, is this the reason?

Try building Ratio signals and getting them to work! I did, eventually, but what a struggle.

Point rodding.

Anyone managed to unplug the tender from the loco? I've got the extraction tool, but it wont budge! If I use anymore force something is going to break.

Just read the review of the Bachmann 4-CEP EMU. Very nice looking model, you'll get 5p change from £550!

Happy New Year everyone. Had this loco a few years and it's now started shorting as soon as it's placed on the track. It's not being caused by the wheels on the sprung axle (4th) contacting the chassis, (common problem apparently) I fixed this when I first got it. I'm looking for suggestions to start the process of elimination, electrics is not my strong point. I've tried a few things to try and find the cause ie. uncoupled the tender, unplugged the decoder, placed the loco on the track with front wheels only contacting the rails and then with rear wheels only contacting the rails, and it is still shorting. Any suggestions please?

Spoke to Hattons yesterday, they are expecting them in the New Year. Seems odd that some "smaller" retailers have already received them before one of the biggest retailers in the UK.

Have pre ordered a Class 37, and will need to convert it to EM. I know there are drop in wheel sets available but wondered if the existing wheels can be pulled further off the axles to give 16.5 mm B2B, are the axles long enough and are they 3mm dia.? Only ever converted one diesel before, a Heljan Class 23 and did this using the existing wheels and axles.

I have pre ordered the unlined green 78000 version from Hattons. This has been available direct from Hornby since the 18th I think, but have not heard anything from Hattons yet. Anyone have any info re. this?

What's the best way with out cutting into the actual wire? This is decoder speaker wire 0.5mm dia. I'm using a scalpel blade to remove the insulation for a soldered joint, but keep cutting into the wire and it's getting shorter and shorter with each attempt.

I'm looking to change the sugar cube speakers in some of my steam locos with something that has more bass. The volume is not the issue, there just seems to be no depth to the sound. I have several ESU 25 x 16 x 7 mm 4 ohm speakers that came with the ESU V4 micro decoders. Do these have a decent bass sound? or would I be better with something like a Megabass speaker 25 x 25 x 7. or a 27 x 27 x 13? The locos have tenders with the decoders fitted in the loco body, so will fit the speakers in the tender, using a 2 pin plug/socket from decoder wires to speaker wires. The advice I've seen, use the "biggest" speaker that will fit the available space, which is best, a speaker that is say, 13mm deep but smaller L x W, than one that is 7mm deep? Any advice please.

Nigel, Managed to sort it out. Row 10 did have sound slot 14 in it, controlled by F8. All the sound slots were from row 4 to row 25, with the F keys in sequence with the rows ie. F2 (row 4), F3 (row 5) an so on, to F23 (row 25). I just went along each row noting the values of each CV, took me just over an hour, Thank you for your help. Phil.

No, not confirmed the mapping line, just that F4 = sound slot 11, I was just going off the manual, that F4 was on mapping row 10. I checked Control B for mapping row 10 cv402 and it reads 000, so not F4? I will investigate further tomorrow. It's obviously not as straight forward as the V4.

Thanks for your reply Nigel, I am using the sound slots from the project creator, Roads & Rails, (ie. F4 in sound slot 11) and not the default factory settings. Is the example I describe the correct method to determine the value of the appropriate CV?

Checked the values of four different CV's to see if I was interpretating the instructions re. sound slots/function buttons correctly (which I'm obviously not). eg. F4 (whistle) is in sound slot 11. Sound slot 11 is in control CV R with a value of 4 (page 82) F4 is on mapping row 10, so I set CV32 to 8 and read cv408 (page 76) but the value of cv408 reads 32, not 4?

I need to move a few sounds to different F keys. Read through the manual a few times but can not understand how to do this. I have done this a few times before with a V4, but the V5 seems to be a different set up. In the V4 manual the function mapping shows 24 sound slots, with 8 in each of O , P , Q and the values required for the control CV. The V5 manual does not have this. Please can anyone explain how to move, eg. sound slot 16 from F14 to work off F4? Thanks in advance.

Interior lights on both cars are flickering. Done the usual, cleaned all wheels/rails, checked all pick ups. I believe this is a common problem with this model, and it's down to the draw bar which also electrically connects the two cars. I've even tried another draw bar. If I ran 2 wires from the terminals on the drawbar sockets (shown below in red), and electrically connect the cars with a 2 pin plug/socket would this eliminate the flickering?

Can someone recommend a sound file that would be close enough to a Class 504 EMU. There are files for the 416, would this sound be close to a 504 or not?

Anyone know when the BR 9F is likely to be available? Edit: Just seen an earlier post, apparently dropped from Phase 3/4.

Many of my locos rock on the rolling road (DCC Concepts) but run perfect on the track.

Thanks for your reply. Drive in and out opposite one another, does this mean the straight lengths of the wire on either side of the Z are in line with each other?

I have built points for a TT120 layout and plan to operate them by wire in tube method using slide switches. Did a search on here and some advise using a Z bend rather than Omega wire. My question is does the Z bend have to be made from sprung wire or can the Z be made DIY, by bending it into the actuating wire, which will be 0.8mm dia. piano wire. Also where is the best position for the Z bend, close to to point tie bar or at the slide switch, or does it not make any difference?

Ha! yes. I think it's in a roof space? Every time I see it I think, there's that poor bloke still crawling around in the loft.