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Offline jayfmn  
#1 Posted : 25 October 2019 17:32:38(UTC)
jayfmn

United States   
Joined: 25/10/2019(UTC)
Posts: 3
Location: Iowa, Sioux City
Hi, I converted my Marklin Z Scale F7 to DCC.
It's the one that came in the Marlin Mini Club set.
I used the Digitrax DZ126T Decoder.
With that decoder , it said to remove the capacitor.
I did & subsequently lost it.
The engine will not run very well.
It has the new 5 pole motor in it also.
Any suggestions??

Jay
Offline Poor Skeleton  
#2 Posted : 26 October 2019 23:19:05(UTC)
Poor Skeleton

United Kingdom   
Joined: 09/10/2015(UTC)
Posts: 550
Location: England, Cambridge
Originally Posted by: jayfmn Go to Quoted Post
...With that decoder , it said to remove the capacitor.
I did & subsequently lost it.
The engine will not run very well.
It has the new 5 pole motor in it also.


Most of the 5 pole motors use the capacitor leads as the contact point for the brushes. How did you remove the capacitor - by cutting it off, or did you remove the entire thing from the motor housing?

The behaviour of the 5 pole motor is very sensitive to the exact position of the capacitor leads - moving the capacitor can make a huge difference to the speed of the motor.

I'm imagining you simply snipped off the capacitor, in which case the remaining lead stubs are probably a little loose I the motor. I'd try replacing them with a wire that is just a little bit thicker - so that it's not loose in the motor. Alternatively, you may find a tiny bit of glue to hold the wire ends in place is beneficial.

Also be careful of the tiny wire wipers from the PCB that make contact onto these leads - they can easily get bent so they make poor or intermittent contact.

Cheers


Chris
Offline jayfmn  
#3 Posted : 27 October 2019 00:32:24(UTC)
jayfmn

United States   
Joined: 25/10/2019(UTC)
Posts: 3
Location: Iowa, Sioux City
Hi Chris,
I did lose the capacitor on the original 3 pole motor when I removed it.
The new Marklin 5 pole motor did not come with one.
So that may be causing the poor running symptom?
Thank you for your response.

Jay
Offline zscalehobo  
#4 Posted : 27 October 2019 18:45:17(UTC)
zscalehobo

United States   
Joined: 22/01/2014(UTC)
Posts: 186
Location: CALIFORNIA, Irvine
First question ... it won't run well with DCC board installed on a DCC layout or on a DC layout? I have heard that a DCC'd loco may not run so smoothly on a DC layout.

As for the motor, Marklin 211903 is the 5-pole version and it should have a cap attached to it.
https://zscalehobo.com/p...marklin/211903_zsh_2.jpg

I have a small supply of the 0.1uF 50VDC capacitors available in my repairs inventory. It's an Archer electronics #272-109 that the Stiska's had been using for their Marklin repairs.
Frank Daniels
Owner - z.scale.hobo
A Noch "Top Dealer"
Marklin Dealer and Z Locomotive Service
Irvine, California, USA
www.zscalehobo.com
Offline Poor Skeleton  
#5 Posted : 27 October 2019 22:47:02(UTC)
Poor Skeleton

United Kingdom   
Joined: 09/10/2015(UTC)
Posts: 550
Location: England, Cambridge
Originally Posted by: jayfmn Go to Quoted Post

So that may be causing the poor running symptom?


I think Frank's response is probably the most helpful so give that some thought.

The capacitor is mainly there to suppress noise spikes which used to interfere with AM radios back when such things existed. It certainly doesn't fundamentally affect the running of the motor. DCC decoders control the speed be sending pulses of voltage or varying lengths to the motor and the capacitor an affect how effective this is and cause the decoder chip to overheat, which is why it's recommended to be removed.

Maybe you could let us know the catalogue number of the loco/set so we can look up the motor. All the diesel motors I've seen come with the capacitor as part of the assembly, but I'm nowhere near as expert as Frank in these things.

Cheers


Chris
Offline jayfmn  
#6 Posted : 29 October 2019 04:03:01(UTC)
jayfmn

United States   
Joined: 25/10/2019(UTC)
Posts: 3
Location: Iowa, Sioux City
Hi Frank,
It was running fine 2 years ago on DC before I converted it.
I did use a VOM to determine which wires went to the motor. It picks up power from each truck.
I was hoping it still ran well when I converted it.
I do not know what to do now with it.

Jay

Offline Poor Skeleton  
#7 Posted : 30 October 2019 22:37:57(UTC)
Poor Skeleton

United Kingdom   
Joined: 09/10/2015(UTC)
Posts: 550
Location: England, Cambridge
Originally Posted by: jayfmn Go to Quoted Post
Hi Frank,
It was running fine 2 years ago on DC before I converted it.
I did use a VOM to determine which wires went to the motor. It picks up power from each truck.
I was hoping it still ran well when I converted it.
I do not know what to do now with it.

Jay



Did you test run it immediately before doing the conversion? It seems to me this could be a mechanical problem, one with the motor or an electrical pick-up problem and there's no hint which of these it might be at present.

A test I'd do is to connect some wires directly from the controller to the loco circuit board and check how things seem then. If all is well, a pickup problem seems likely and some wheel cleaning might be in order. Otherwise, disconnect the decoder and connect directly to the motor with a DC feed and see how that is. You could also remove each truck in turn and check they are moving freely.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but I think it's a case of eliminating causes one by one. I very much doubt the capacitor has anything to do with it, though.

Cheers


Chris
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