Fitting stay alive to Farish 150/2?

[jonhinds]

Hi

 

I’m wondering whether to fit a stay alive capacitor to my Farish 150/2 (371-329) due to sporadic stalling at medium-low speeds. Wheels, pickup and track are clean, but as it’s my first effort at building code 40 track some gaps and slight unevenness have crept in. A simple push sets the unit running again, and it doesn’t always stall at the same spot.

 

1. Is a stay alive generally a good / reliable solution in these situations?

2. Does it require a particular decoder type?

3. Are any specific SA capacitors recommended for this motor/chassis?

 

Many thanks!

[Nigelcliffe]

If you've run out of options improving the pickup, then yes a stay-alive will help (if you pick the right ones, it will remove any stalling). 

 

In principle, stay-alive can be fitted to any decoder.  But, you need to know how to connect the stay-alive to the decoder, and in many cases that means finding information manufacturers don't supply, and soldering wires into the middle of decoders.    So, easier to pick something which documents how to fit a stay-alive. 

 

  
If you want "won't ever stall ever again", then the combination of the Lais stay-alive modules which Digitrains retail (£15 for the last ones I bought, comes in several different shapes), onto a Zimo decoder (was £20, likely to be more when they're back in stock anywhere) would be my choice.   
The Zimo has a key trick which is absent in most (all?) other decoder brands.   The Zimo can detect that it has come to a stop without track power, and nudge along until power is restored, but it needs a big stay-alive to do that, which is where the Lais unit gives a lot of power for the money in a fairly small package.   Set the maximum run-time CV in the decoder so the 150 can't run off the layout without track power.  
That's still a soldering job, two wires onto small-ish solder pads at the edge of the decoder, which requires some skills for small wire soldering.  

 

- Nigel

[Nigelcliffe]

( Software glitch led to duplicate posting, deleted )

Edited April 28, 2022 by Nigelcliffe

[jonhinds]

Many thanks! I’m currently using a ‘made by Zimo’ Bachmann 6 pin decoder, so will check if that’s suitable.

[Nigelcliffe]

1 hour ago, jonhinds said:

Many thanks! I’m currently using a ‘made by Zimo’ Bachmann 6 pin decoder, so will check if that’s suitable.

 

It is a Zimo decoder.  Same solder pads as the ones Zimo sell themselves - the small squares at the far end from the pins.  You need the Zimo "small decoder" manual to identify which pad for which wire.  You're looking for decoder common positive (otherwise used for the blue wire) and decoder ground ("mass" in some German diagrams).  

 

 

- Nigel

[WIMorrison]

Just remember though that stayalives don’t help with poor starting, if the loco is not picking up the signal to start moving without a stay alive then it will still not pickup the signal after fitting it.

[jonhinds]

3 minutes ago, WIMorrison said:

Just remember though that stayalives don’t help with poor starting, if the loco is not picking up the signal to start moving without a stay alive then it will still not pickup the signal after fitting it.

Yes, good point. So far the main issue seems to be locos sporadically stalling in motion rather than actually failing to start.

 

18 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

It is a Zimo decoder.  Same solder pads as the ones Zimo sell themselves - the small squares at the far end from the pins.  You need the Zimo "small decoder" manual to identify which pad for which wire.  You're looking for decoder common positive (otherwise used for the blue wire) and decoder ground ("mass" in some German diagrams).  

 

 

- Nigel

 

Many thanks for your help Nigel, that’s fantastic.

[Nigelcliffe]

3 hours ago, WIMorrison said:

Just remember though that stayalives don’t help with poor starting, if the loco is not picking up the signal to start moving without a stay alive then it will still not pickup the signal after fitting it.

 

Sort of yes,  but only sort-of.   

If a Zimo comes to a halt (following its deceleration curve) when there is no pickup, it attempts to nudge along to where there is pickup.  That takes lots of energy, but if there is the power available (big stay alive), that's what happens.  So, it is back on power, stay-alive recharged, and ready for instructions.   Hence the "sort-of".   I think that's a unique to Zimo feature.  

If, whilst stationary, it looses pickup (possible, but it was picking up when it stopped...), it won't start again.  Which is the "yes".  

 

- Nigel

[jonhinds]

On 28/04/2022 at 11:17, Nigelcliffe said:

If you want "won't ever stall ever again", then the combination of the Lais stay-alive modules which Digitrains retail (£15 for the last ones I bought, comes in several different shapes), onto a Zimo decoder (was £20, likely to be more when they're back in stock anywhere) would be my choice.

I now have the Lais Kung Fu 870007 soldered to the Bachmann 36-568A. Digitrains provided the soldering for £2. Everything seems to run smoothly, however the directional lights are a bit flickery. Moreover they only operate when the unit is moving, and moving on an even speed step (2, 4 etc.). Everything is on factory default, and I’m using NCE Powercab.

 

I don’t fully understand CVs so haven’t looked into tweaking anything.

[Nigelcliffe]

3 hours ago, jonhinds said:

I now have the Lais Kung Fu 870007 soldered to the Bachmann 36-568A. Digitrains provided the soldering for £2. Everything seems to run smoothly, however the directional lights are a bit flickery. Moreover they only operate when the unit is moving, and moving on an even speed step (2, 4 etc.). Everything is on factory default, and I’m using NCE Powercab.

 

I don’t fully understand CVs so haven’t looked into tweaking anything.

 

Sounds like a CV29 mis-match on speed steps - different setting in handset to decoder, with one of them set to 14 steps.   I wrote this a dozen or more years ago:

 

http://2mm.org.uk/articles/cv29 calculator.htm

 

 

[jonhinds]

Thanks! Just changed the decoder speed steps to 2/28 on CV29 and problem solved.

[jonhinds]

Now having another lighting issue.

 

I’ve put a decoder in the dummy unit and tried to program it on the programming track, with the chipped  powered unit also present. So far so good.

 

However the forward and rear lighting on the dummy car are now both constantly on at half brightness, and whenever the powered car moves in a given direction the dummy car also has the same lighting direction i.e. white/white, red/red.

 

[jonhinds]

Turns out the dummy decoder was fitted the wrong way up. 😳