Weardale Wanderer

I fitted strips of 12v leds to my coach ceiling. These are the sticky ones that come on a roll normally. There's a dcc function chip fitted with a lais kung fu stay alive, and a 1k resistor. In spite of this and picks ups and all wheels, it flickers. This happens on the other coaches that have the same or similar set up (loksound v5 with esu stay alive). Am I missing something? Mark

The two locos I have that are the source of my problems are both Fleischmann. One is a BR89, the other a BR70. Both are small locos with each utilising the same type of motor (Photo of same design motor, but not the actual ones I have): The first loco that went up in smoke was DCC ready (The BR70), which was fitted with a Gaugemaster chip (This was a 90 degree bend 6 x pin version). The second to go (The BR89) was hard wired by me with a replacement LED bulb for the front and a Lokommander 2 micro chip. It has no rear facing light. The gaugemaster chip is dead and was the one that got so hot it emitted smoke, whereas the Lokommander one is fine. I swapped out the burned gaugemaster chip for a Lokpilot model which is what simply gave the flashing 'on and off' front light. Not sure if this is 'code' for anything. In any case, it became apparent the motor was faulty. I have tried swapping out one of the motors (In the BR89) for a coreless one and although this works it makes a horrible grinding sound. This believe is most likely down to the gears not meshing properly. There appears to be a similarity between the two locos in regards to the original open frame motor type and the demise of said motors when used with DCC. Not right away, but after be stored for a little while the same thing happened - dead motor. Finding replacements for these is not proving easy, and even if I did find them will the same problem occur? Another point is that the Gaugemaster chip was the one that was smoking. I thought about posting pics of the locos, but honestly they both look absolutely fine. There's no insulation broken or melted. The motors look fine too. However, I took the body off one of the locos and put it on the track. The motor jerked a little, then quite literally glowed like a light bulb. Still no sign of any actual damage though. If anyone can advise me, in non too technical terms, how to test for current draw, stall measurements and the like, I'd be grateful. I've tried looking it up on line, however people tend to talk about these things as if we all know how to do it already! I am self taught and rely on forums and youtube etc to build my knowledge. As such I very much appreciate any and all help offered by my more learned fellow hobbyists. :) Happy Christmas everyone.

I'm wondering - Both these locos use very small bulbs, rather than LED's. If I replaced these, would it make any difference to current draw, or is this down to the motor? I'm tempted to try and replace the motors with coreless ones. Any thoughts?

Option 2 by the sounds of things : It had been running nicely for a short while, put into storage, tested for a few seconds and then up it went. The second loco went the same way, but no smoke. I can still access its settings in DCC and it makes a sound, but no movement. All very odd, and a bit worrying. I don't want to risk any more 'popping' like this. The first chip was Soundtraxx I think. The second was train-o-matic, which suprised me. I find the chips to be very good. More investigation is required.

Just had another one pop tonight. Both were Fleischmann locos that were quite old but that second one I'd hard wire converted to DCC. The first was DCC ready. They'd worked great for a while but had been in storage for a good few months. The second loco, again a small one, didn't give off smoke but is just sitting there with its lights blinking on and off. I think they both have those little rectangular open frame motors. I'm going to have a good look at them this weekend.

I was testing a loco of mine a little while ago, a Fleischmann BR 70 (4070) on DCC. It was running nicely until, on a straight piece of track, smoke starting pouring out of it. It was still going, and didn't trip out. I took out the decoder and it was red hot. Replaced the chip with a new ESU one, but now all that happens is the front and back lights flicker constantly. No signs of life. I'm obviously thinking a short, but perhaps the motor ? It looks okay but I haven't tested it yet. Has anyone any thoughts before I go into a deeper dive? Cheers, Mark

You haven't caused me an issue at all. To the contrary, I think knowing about CV54 will be extremely useful for my other locos. I don't what the problem is with this one, but I can live with it. It's been a headache since day one in any case! I'm just grateful for you using your time to offer a newbie like me some much needed (And welcome) help and advice. :)

Thanks for the above. I've tried the CV54 'auto tune' feature this afternoon. The model certainly runs a lot smoother, except that now the sound switches off just after starting off, and comes back on as it's coming to a halt. A google of this issue appears to suggest the sound file can't 'link' somehow with the new CV54 setting (which is flagging up as a value of 12). As it stands, If I want to have sound I'll have to reset the file back to what it was before (Jerks and all). Considering how many options there are with the ESU chips, there must be some setting I can fiddle about with to get the motor running smoothly and keep the sound. Any suggestions welcome. :)

Hello all, Can someone help me with a connundrum? I've been building a model 507 and have fitted a Hornby X9882 Class 153 DMU Drive Unit into it. I've got an ESU V5 sound chip in there with an ESU stay alive. Starting from halt, the motor is horribly jerky until it gets moving. Similarly, when it's coming to a halt the same happens when coming to a low speed. I tried turning off Back EMF and it's very smooth, however it takes ages to get going, slows down on slight gradients, picks up speed at various points, and is completely out of synch with the motor sound. Therefore it seems Back EMF is the way to go, but what on earth do I do with the settings to make it a smooth start and stop? I have the ESU programmer, but I haven't got a clue what I'm looking at. Complicated doesn't begin to describe it! Can anyone help? Cheers, Mark

Thanks for that folks. The directional 'main beam' is now working very nicely. My next task is to work out how to set the carriage lights to start authentically. I seem to recall the 507's were fluorescent strips lights? The ESU decoder is defaulted to a gradual brightening of the lights which looks okay, whereas the Imperium decoder controlled ones just switch 'on' or 'off'. It looks a bit weird having two different lighting effects. Allegedly there are lighting effects setting for these imperium decoders, but once again I can't find them anywhere. The CV list says they're on the Dapol site, but when I go there I can't find anything! Good grief, why don't they include these in the boxes with the decoders?! Any thoughts gratefully received.

I found a list of CV's for them, but nothing I can see suggests the various functions could be set up as directional: imperium-cvlist_1-0D.pdf (wicknessmodels.co.uk) I may need to invest in a ESU or Zimo one?

I'm building a 3 x car 507 unit which has a chip in each carriage. At each end I have a Dapol Imperium Next18 which work fine. The centre one has a ESU sound chip. The only snag is that I've got a 'Main beam' headlight at each end which is independent of the normal directional headlights. At present, whenever I turn the main beam on it's lit at both ends, so clearly needs to be directional. I don't think the Imperium decoders have the facility for changing a CV to make a function directional. Can anyone advise me on what I can do here? Cheers, Mark