What happens to sound- and smoke-functions in "stop-sections" that are only supplied with power through a 1k5 resistor?

I would guess that they are turned off. But I'm wondering if they are "completely" turned off, or if the small current remaining in anyway could be "harmful" to the loco if it stands in this section for a very long time.

Hope you understand what I'm trying to ask...[:I]

/Torbjörn

I think we are past the need for the 1k5 resistor as its primary goal is for the older decoders that do not retain their settings (direction in particular) for more than very short periods of time.
If you have such a decoder it is a prime candidate for an update.

The downside is trying to debug short/open circuits. the existence of parallel resistance(s) on the layout can be confusing and hinder problem determination.

I agree that it is very desirable to keep lights on and smoke unit warm(maybe) but personally prefer the option of a second "intelligent" feed with the speed filtered to zero but still allowing feature activation.

Some members have reportet "Alzheimer" on some decoder, e.g. the 60760.

Will the resistor prevent this? Or is this phenomena only happening after a longer period without supplied voltage?

/Torbjörn


With that era you are right to ask. However a better indication is the generation of the chip 701.xx.
I would expect anything from minutes to a week
That said our club has a loco that wont last 2 minutes.

To deviate slightly , two peripheral issues arrise
1) Controller
2) Direction recognition

The 6020 controller only sent(resent) a command to the track for the loco dialed up, while the 6021 maintains a buffer of ALL addresses selected since power on and resends/refreshes every command constantly.
Thus, if a 6021 is in control, any locomotive that happened to have lost its memory because it was on a dead section for too long will (within a couple of seconds) be reminded of its speed and take off as expected.

The only "gotcha" here is if the loco was put on the track in the wrong direction (i.e. its default direction was backwards) it would take off at the right speed but in the wrong direction. Awareness is the answer here - simply ensure the loco is going forward ;-) or , if you like running tender first, swap the blue and green wires.

From memory the 6090 had a 701.13? chip, late Delta and 6090x a 701.23?
With a 6021 sending "Motorola New" format to the track, it included a specific direction in a speed command (i.e. there is a different command for speed5-forward and speed5-back). So again waking up from a dead section will result in these locos getting a definative speed command. That said the newer chip had longer memory.

Sorry I can't be more specific about the times expected. As above I have used a Loco from the early 90s that wont last a couple of minutes while others (I believe) have done a week.

Peter,
to my knowledge there is not that sharp difference between 6020 and 6021; AFAIK 6021 allows for more locos in the refreshcycle than 6020, but both remember some, and none remember all. But in practice you are right of course.

/Lars

PS.
Additional useless knowledge:
The old protocol sent f1-f4 in a completely different way than the new, and not very many decoders exist that understand the old at all. But if one has one (I do) the f1-f4 info for the old protocol is not resent at all; maybe twice in the beginning only. The new protocol resends the info along with speed resend.

More precisely, the 6020 does not resend f1-f4, and the 6021 doesn't do it in the old protocol. However, Intellibox may be configurered to resend f1-f4 in old protocol if I rembember correctly.

/Lars

The theory is valid but it is more common to have a short dead section for the locomotive only and to have the coach lighting draw from their own pickup or the pickup at the other end of the train (e.g the ICE train sets).

I would caution against getting as complicated as bespoke (zener)diode "addons". Instead I suggest that the time be spent in better control of the train. For example - ensuring it slows and stops before the dead section (with lights and functions all still operational/operateable). In such cases the dead section is optional but a good safety backstop in the event of an overrun.

The reason why I've been thinking of this in the first place, is that I'm going to use (probably, I have many ideas right now) brake-modules also in my underground stations. And there I want functions and lighting to "go out" without me having to turn them off. And if I cut the power when using brake-modules (after the train has stopped) I will end up with a rather long stop section which might include the ski pick-up for the waggons interior lighting.

Once again thanks for your replies Peter and Lars!

/Torbjörn