Maybe it's just me, yet this is the second Seuthe 24 smoke generator I install (this time into a BR 18.4 aka S3/6) and I don't find it to be smoking a lot, compared to other smoking generators...

I checked the contact, I did not overfill the smoke generator. I can spot a very very faint hint of smoke only so far... So contacts are OK.

Does anyone have similar experiences with the Seuthe 24?

Aha, that explains it. I am powering it from the decoder indeed, whereas the original model configuration was being powered from the track.

The manual of the loc said to use a Seuthe 24... That one needs 16 to 22V. On the other hand, it consumes ca. 70 mA, which is exactly what Kühn recommends. I built in a Kühn T145 decoder...

I'll guess it is a common mistake to make. I'll have to order a Seuthe 20... Thanks for the info.

Hi Maxi,


I will try this first as well. I did some further reading and came to the conclusion that the 24 draws 70 mA which is better. Also, the Kühn T145 manual says I should be looking for a smoke generator which is 16V-21V and according the specs, the 24 should suit that perfectly.

Maybe the ground is not so good on the metal body of a S3/6...

Hi Steven86,

You've already found out how it all works,nevertheless here's a link to a German Märklin Insiders website with a summary of possibilities you'll most likely encounter in Märklin locs.

http://www.hamst.de/html/seuthe_dampf.html

Hope you don't mind it's in German only.

Kind regards
Guus

The Seuthe 20 is now in the loc and it smokes as it should. Many thanks for the advice.

This experience led me to examine another loc with a not-so-good smoke generator, a BR-55. Guess what. It has a Seuthe 24 too. Now, I checked the manual from Märklin and to my surprise it says:

Delta/digital: Seuthe 24
Analog: Seuthe 20

imho, Märklin's manual must be wrong. They probably switched the numbers. Shouldn't it be Delta/Digital: 20 and Analog: 24?

Anyone who has a BR-55? What type of Seuthe do you have in there?

In the BR-55, it will not smoke except after 30 minutes or so... I'd like to claim some more smoke

The story as I have been told, is this:

In the beginning was the analog train with its analog smoker, and all was well.
Then came the first digital (delta?) trains. The decoder introduced a voltage drop before it reached the motor, so the digital system runs on a HIGHER voltage in order to compensate for this. However, the smoke units were still connected directly to the rails, so they smoked like heck due to the higher voltage. And so the "digital" smoke units saw the light of day, and all was once again well.
And now we want to control everything, so of course our smokers are connected to the decoders. Of course this means that the smokers now get the slightly lower voltage from the decoder output, and so we, once again, are best served with the old analog smoke generators.

When that is said, I should perhaps mention that some decoders doesn't introduce much of a voltage drop, and here the "digital" smokers are the preferred choice.
Proper wiring of the track power is also essential. I have two loks with digital smokers, and they run and smoke very well on my own layout. But visiting my cousins bigger layout resulted in virtually no smoke at all. A closer look revealed that his track power were fed by very thin wires (like the size of the wires on a turnout), and the layout only had feeding points for every 4 meters of track.

I'd say it would be the other way around. The Seuthe 20 is recommended in the above HAMST link as the type to connect to a Function of the decoder. So that suggests it needs a lower voltage to smoke.

I am also running my Intellibox at voltage for N gauge, to save the electronics. Would that make a difference too? Voltage will never go above 16V than...