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Offline river6109  
#1 Posted : 08 April 2014 13:55:17(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
as you all know I make my own Märklin braking modules (not including mfx), the modules work fine and flawless but I'm having difficulties to keep the loco stopping at the same spot. to do this there are several factors depending on such a braking distance.

a.) if you have a 60901 Märklin decoder, they do the job if your distance is moderate but anything outside a certain distance your loco has to race into the siding and by having enough carriages behind it the whole train should just sit inside both turnouts on both ends.
My system works by installing switching tracks at the nearest end when the train stops this enabling it to a.) activate the adjoining siding and at the same time switch the turnouts so the next train goes back into the same siding it has left and this procedure is than repeated all over again.

to achieve this there are several options available to you: a.) computer control (will leave this out for the time being), b.) Märklin 60901 decoder or an ESU decoder or sound decoder.

The locos in questions are either Roco or Märklin locos converted with a 5 pole high efficiency motor. ESU has made considerable changes in their selection of decoders from V2, V3, V3.5 sound and V4 sound decoder. between the last 2 there have been made several improvements, for instance with the V4 you can select a distance for the loco to stop, this means regardless of your loco speed, your loco will travel a programmed distance and stop whereas the V3.5 you have to select the braking distance and speed to achieve your loco to stop at a certain spot, similar to the 60901 decoder, the only difference is with an ESU decoder you can select 128 speed steps and this allows the loco to run further without having to increase the speed too much.

In one of my previous videos I had several locos running, altogether 20 on an automatic system and if I remember correctly all had V4 decoders or sound decoders, they all stopped at the exact point and this worked fine over several hours.

2 days later I started up my ECoS and to my surprise the distance no longer worked exactly as before and the loco didn't reach the point as to switch or activate the braking module and therefore the trains either didn't start because the activation didn't take place. since than we've been working mainly on the snow modules and it was put on the back burner.

I now made running trails on my 2 non electrified tracks mainly for steam or diesel locos, the same setup applied, braking module one train enters the siding and the other train gets activated by switching tracks.

my first loco was the latest Roco model ÖBB Rh 93, it has an ESU V4 Lopi in it and again it works flawless stopping at exactly the same spot every time.
I than programmed my old RM 800 with an ESU 3.5 sound decoder, setting the braking distance and speed and I didn't get any results, one minute it stopped the next minute it went through although the signal was on red., my third loco was the BR 81 004 with a Lokpilot V2 DCC and again it worked almost perfect but good enough for me to pass it.
My next loco was a BR 78 with V4 sound decoder and again I was able to set the distance without any problem but a slight change so far the distance was concerned before it fully stopped. none of the locos had any excessive weight behind them consisting of 3, 4 or 5 unloaded freight carriages. the BR 78 had 3 Hecht carriages behind it.

My surprise and somewhat mystery is why is my Roco loco doing exactly what it suppose to do by programming it to an exact distance before stopping and my converted Märklin locos with the same decoder behaving slightly differently.
is there so much resistance in these 5 pole motors and I'm sure all have ball bearings but have to investigate it and see if this has anything to do with it.
It isn't a complete reassuring situation especially when you have so many trains running as I have and its not the set up but rather the loco's motor.

So its another dilemma on my list of unsolved problems.

John
https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
Offline RayF  
#2 Posted : 08 April 2014 14:03:00(UTC)
RayF

Gibraltar   
Joined: 14/03/2005(UTC)
Posts: 15,838
Location: Gibraltar, Europe
Good luck with that, John, it sounds a bit of a headache!

I hope you come to a satisfactory solution.
Ray
Mostly Marklin.Selection of different eras and European railways
Small C track layout, control by MS2, 100+ trains but run 4-5 at a time.
Offline river6109  
#3 Posted : 08 April 2014 14:21:18(UTC)
river6109

Australia   
Joined: 22/01/2009(UTC)
Posts: 14,636
Location: On 1965 Märklin Boulevard just around from Roco Square
Originally Posted by: RayF Go to Quoted Post
Good luck with that, John, it sounds a bit of a headache!

I hope you come to a satisfactory solution.


Ray,

it is, at the moment very annoying, one tries to get on with things and all these drawbacks stops me going forward, one could do something else there is enough to do but its not an answer to put it in the hard basket file.

In theory the programmable distance should work and so it does in actual trials and this was my outset to lay and place these switching tracks at strategic points of a braking section, I may have to rework this section and allow more room for play so a slight inconsistency doesn't upset the whole setup by either going to far and encroaching onto the other train near the turnout or not passing the switching track.

John

https://www.youtube.com/river6109
https://www.youtube.com/6109river
5 years in Destruction mode
50 years in Repairing mode
thanks 1 user liked this useful post by river6109
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