peterm1

You don't have to solder between the components on the MX600. I don't feel well enough at the moment to find it, but there's a row of solder pads on the back of the 600 and one of those is the ground. Someone will tell you soon.

Edited to say I found it. Click on this link.

Hopefully the sender will make it clear that it's a faulty unit that's been repaired. Did you enclose a copy of your receipt so they could send it back with the unit?

Have you looked at Tonys Trains in Vermont?

Thanks.

I'd thought I might do that but I'm tending towards a fault in the decoder. I will try cutting out the stay alive though.

I damaged this decoder and sent it to Zimo for repair. It came back with a 6 pin plug on it. I tested it on my MXTAPS and it worked OK. I de-soldered the wires I didn't need, leaving the red, black, orange,grey and speaker wires. I also soldered Lais stay alive wires to the positive and ground pads. Not the capacitor pads. I found a 6 pin socket and soldered the pickup and motor wires to it and all the rest connected directly from the decoder as above. I used a very fine stranded wire 36awg I think to go from motor and pick ups to the speaker, decoder and stay alive in a wagon and made sure that none were pinched or shorted. This loco is a Dapol B4, so hardly any room inside.

Now for the problem: This loco runs superbly... when it runs, but it seems to have a mind of it's own. I can use it and then go and do something else. Come back to it in a few hours or next day and nothing. I get Lenz error, 2 no connection on the programming track. Come back again and away it goes with perfect sound and running. I've stripped it down and checked the wiring with a multi meter and found no damaged wires or dodgy joints. I've run out of ideas and hope someone can come up with something.

If it comes up as 145, it's a Zimo. You can then read CV's 7 and 65 for the version and sub version.

8 hours ago, stewartingram said:

I used to work for Pye/Philips in Cambridge. Now if you've ever watched the Proffesionals on TV back in the 80's, they "used" Pye PF8 handportable radios (they were actually empty cases), which apparently worked everywhere they went (not possible with a live one, they had limited range).

Now the point is they were powered by a (to Pye) new-fangled re-chargeable battery. Think of an AA re-chargeable, they were that sort of size, but actually not quite - they sold more because no-one else made them. They were an all metal case too, no insulation; the +ve terminal on the end was like a present day CR2032 button battery, just a small insulated gap to the outer case -ve, the gap was about 1mm.

Put a fully charged one in your pocket with your car keys, they shorted it out and burnt a hole in your pocket. They were only 1.2v, but if you shorted them out with an AVO 8 multimeter on the 10A range and the needle hit the stop. They gave 10A and more!

One of my fellow workers shorted one with his wedding ring, that welded to the battery and caused a quite severe burn under the ring before he broke the battery away!

Treat elecktrickery with respect - always.

Going a bit off topic... what's new? Many years ago as a youngster learning the trade as a mechanic I watched an electrician taking a battery out of a Bedford J type small lorry. The battery was in the nearside cab floor. There was a shout of some lovely language and said electrician ended up with part of one (ring) finger burnt away. Believe it or not, this electrician had undone and removed the live lead and got his finger caught between spanner, lead and metal floor. Quite a mess. Even I at the tender age of 15 or 16 new not to do that. Earth lead first off, last on.

For my two pennarth, I went to Bunnings (large hardware store in Oz) and bought a couple of extension leads. Stripped off the outer sheath and then used the blue and brown for the dcc bus, soldering dropper to every single piece of track, even a catch point. I've never had a problem with voltage drop on my layout which is about 8 metres x 2.7 metres  and has several sound loco's turned on at the same time.

I'd suggest as others have, that the op makes sure his bus wire is adequate and that every piece of track has droppers.

Ps: The earth wire serves as The common for all my Tortoise motors, so it's not an expensive thing to do properly.

Loco end was looking OK as well, so I might bite the bullet and re wire the whole thing with the loco & tender permanently coupled.

I've tested the decoder on my MXTAPS and it behaves perfectly.

Thanks for that. I've copied it over. Fingers crossed. I've had the tender socket apart and found that it looks OK on the inside. Now I'll have to take a deep breath and have a look at the loco end.

I couldn't decide where to put this, so mods please move it if need be.

I have the D class and have fitted it with a Zimo sound decoder.Just lately the sound cuts out after a second or two of turning it on. I've found that if I waggle (for want of a better word) the loco and tender, then the sound comes on. In reverse it stays on but forwards it cuts out. I'm sure it must be the connection or wiring, but wondered if anyone else has had this problem and how they fixed it. I have cleaned the connection surfaces, top and bottom of the plug and socket, but this made no difference. The loco doesn't stop, only the sound.

Yes that is superb weathering. What  shame we're so far away. I'm on Bribie Island.

It might be worth trying F19 as this can be for muting the sound.

I've just stumbled across your post and what a good one it is. I've book marked it so that I can go through the whole lot... eventually. Thanks for all the videos.

I've had dealings with these connectors too. Horrible things to try and get right. As Charlie says, you're better off hard wiring them.

The wonders of technockolology as Arfur would have said.

Maybe it's the luck of the draw, although it shouldn't be. I posted last October that mine runs well with it's Ultrascale wheels, and it still does. In another story, I've had 3 of the 4 wheels slip on the axles of a Dapol B4. I have a NWSL quartering jig and used it along with Loctite 640 to refit said wheels. If you're up for it, it might be worth getting hold of the jig.

Forgot to mention that if you use CV57 to reduce the top speed by lowering the voltage, rather than using CV5, it's in tenths of a second, so 90 = 9 volts and so on.

4 hours ago, kevo said:

Hi  to try and get to grips with it all i have pulled out a old Hornby j94  i brought with a sound decoder and stay alive fitted  it was never a great runner  very jerky  .  and start from scratch with this  . i have been starting with cv 2 through to cv 4  so far and made some progress  but as quick as you think you got the hang of it and read on it gets a bit complicated  of sorts  . i have got it to start slowly  but the mid range power i doint seem to have had sucsess yet so back to whatch ing some more vids 4 the moment 

I've given you all the info' you need to get a loco running well, if you use that info. You'll learn as you go on. The mid range power (speed curve)  is controlled by CV6. Try setting this at a third of CV5 and then at 2 thirds of the same and see the difference. Most loco's don't have a linear setting, but if you prefer, then set CV6 at half the value of CV5

5 hours ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

 

For me, that is one of the best ever images to appear on this thread.

That is a fantastic scene.

I've done many resets on Zimo decoders with Paul's sounds on and they've never missed a beat.

CV's 3 & 4 are acc and dec respectively. Read them and make note of their settings and then try lowering their values. You can also use CV57 to reduce the top voltage to the motor, rather than using CV5. This keeps all the speed steps as they were. BTW, are you using 128 speed steps? This gives finer control than 28. CV6 will determine the speed curve. Adjust it to suit the way you want the loco to accelerate.

Hope this helps.

I know it might sound obvious, but have you tried a reset, CV8 to 8?

Also, depending on the sound author F19 ( digitrains by Paul Chetter)  for muting might be engaged.

Thanks to both of you. I was worrying that an under powered speaker could cause clipping and damage the amp, but that's probably more of a worry for full size HI FI systems.