Dear Forum,

I just broke one leg of Inductor E516520 when I did maintenance on my loco motor, I move the inductor a little bit, and then... , the leg was broken, so I go find electronic shop. From Märklin website, this spare part measured 3,9µH. Unfortunately, the shop don't have inductors with similar value. Instead he offer me this inductors, and said that it can be used as well. Well, if my eyes still correct, the color on the inductor body is yellow, violet, silver, and gold. I don't know about color value when I purchase it, and then I search on internet and found this very useful website http://www.electronics20...ctor-code-calculator.php



The inductor is only measured 0,47µH (again, if I'm not make mistake ). So my question, is it okay to install this inductor on my loco DCM motor?
On this matter, I only have steady hand, but very little brain on electronic , I can do soldering, but don't know the effect if I put lower or higher value of inductors. Feel free to provide electronic 101 class to me . I have digital multimeter, but don't know if it can be used to measure inductors. I only know there is ohm meter, but this is for resistor and not inductor?

I can buy the inductors from ebay.de, or from any other online shop, but that will be my final option, as it will take very long time to reach me. So at this moment, I will stick to local electronic shop, and hopefully, will find the correct shop that provide correct inductors.

Many thanks before.

regards,
Sony

Edited by user 29 January 2014 14:37:35(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

As Tom infers in the first part of his post, they are used as interference suppressors, or as Wikipedia suggests "they are designed specifically for blocking higher-frequency alternating current (AC) in an electrical circuit, while allowing lower frequency or DC current to pass."

http://en.wikipedia.org/.../Choke_%28electronics%29

I think the choke value is 3.3 uH - they are available from Jaycar in New Zealand and Australia

http://www.jaycar.co.nz/...s=choke&form=KEYWORD

http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=LF1516

He did. The colour code should end with gold-gold or gold-silver. Silver-gold is too small by a factor of 10.

Maybe someone here has tested the mSD without chokes and shares his/her experience.

I looked at some "Märklin" chokes and to me they seem to have the rings "brown white gold silver", which would make them 1.9 µH. With a google search I found quotes for both values (3.9 µH and 1.9 µH).

Hi Tom, BigDaddy,

This is the broken inductor:



To me, if my eyes still correct, the color are red-white-gold-silver, and that is measured 2.9 µH.

From maerklinshop.de (https://www.maerklinshop.de/index.php?shp=1&cl=spareparts), if you put E516520 on Teil Nummer, then Märklin says Entstördrossel (Inhalt 20 Stück)3,9µH, 1,1A. So at first, I thought that it is orange, not red, as orange-white-gold-silver measured as 3.9 µH. But I'm sure that is red...

So now, I guess Märklin have produce several chokes then, isn't it? There are 3.9, 2.9, 1.9, 3.3 µH??? Wow, quite confusing.

I never pay attention on chokes when I do conversion, until this problem occur. Is it possible that decoder got blew up due to incorrect value of chokes?
I have S 3/6 (33183) that already kill 2 of my mSD , and I never knew why that is happening. Perhaps, better to left some loco with its original decoder .

I check the link that BigDaddy provide, but I cannot determine the color ring on the inductor, even when I clicked the enlarge picture, still not clear, but as the item descriptions on the webpage says, then it is 3.3 µH.

PS: the loco having this inductor problem is 37182, and yes another S 3/6, with its original chokes, the loco is fine, don't know if I replace chokes with different value...... also the 33183 are retrofitted with DCM motor from 60760 but using mSD.

regards,
Sony

I've used the 3.3uH chokes from Jaycar on several locos without any issues.