Gents, I'm a little lost and very confused so I'm hoping to draw from someone else'e expertise. I have an Atlas #305 turntable that utilizes a split ring to automatically reverse the polarity at the correct position. I get that. I also understand the wiring of the stall tracks A and B so that the stall tracks have the correct polarity for the locomotive entering and leaving the turntable. That being said I am trying to use DCC in conjunction with this turntable. So here's my scenario. I have wired a spare sound decoder to the turntable motor successfully and it works great although I find the Atlas rotating mechanism to be a little, well alright, very noisy. I am using a single approach track off the mainline that is 90 degrees to the gear motor (if that is important to know) and have wired the turntable rails from the approach rails accordingly. When the locomotive comes in through the approach track and enters the turntable everything works fine including the sound. But then after rotating two stalls in one direction or one stall in the opposite direction the locomotive loses power. If I continue to rotate the locomotive stopping at each stall and test for power to the locomotive I find quite a number of dead stalls then find one live one only to have the next one dead. What I'm at a loss to is while the locomotive is on the turntable it seems to me it shouldn't make any difference what position the locomotive is in it should still continue to receive power. The split ring changes the polarity but I don't see why that would kill the power to the locomotive. It would be no different than toggling the direction button on the controller. Another consideration would be if the turntable itself is faulty. I have to admit I purchased this turntable on eBay but as we all know, even though a seller professes an item to be new sometimes it just ain't so. Unfortunately for me I'm not that adept at polarity and electricity or DCC for that matter so I'm trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong or if I just don't know what I'm doing. If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions or comments I'd sure love to hear em. Thanks in advance from a frustrated model railroader
Sounds to me like the split ring and / or its brushes are dirty? I am not familiar with the turntable, but reading elsewhere it appears that there should only be a 'dead spot' at one point where the polarity gets reversed....
