I have a small 8 ft. X 11 ft. layout that I bought mostly finished and wired for DC. With only rudimentary knowledge I've managed to install a DCC bus and concert the previous owner's block wiring to drops for DCC. Somehow, I got allt work just fine. Well, almost. On a section between the main yard and the wye, there is a little intermodal yard. This too worked, but not perfectly. Engines sort of balked in places in this area, and since this section lacked a feeder drop from the bus, I decided to add one. This fixed the balky locomotive problem and I thought my final problem was solved. However, the first time that I attempted to move a train from the intermodal yard into the main yard,into I got a dead short and my Zephyr shut down as soon as the locomotive crossed a thebridge and breeched the insulated track joiners separating the two areas. Push backthe engine back off of the intersection and the Zephyr comes back to life. I have included a drawing showing the entire layout and the location of the Zephyr and the bus (A), the 3 pairs of insulated rail joiners (B), the reversing module for the wye (C)l, and the drop that I added (D) to solve the problem with the intermodal yard. I'd really appreciate it if someone could help me figure out what is going wrong. Don
Have you checked the phase of the drop. If your leads are not on the same rails coming out of the yard as in the yard it can cause a short of this type. It is an ac signal but the sections need to be synced. Just make sure the each rail is on the same side of the bus in the yard as coming out.
That yard needs to be fed off the reversing module, not the main bus. It is within your reversing loop.
Thanks IronMan. I tried swopping the phase of the bus wire coming out of the Zephyr and it shorter either way when the loco crosses the insulated rain joiners (yellow in the drawing) from the narrow bridge to the large yard on the right. It just started doing that after I added the drop (at "d") into the small yard to the right of the wye. Don Thanks RBrodzinsky. Could you clarify on your response? By saying that the yard needs to be fed off the reversing module, where should the respective red and yellow leads from the reversing module be connected? Don
If I understand what you have stated, your problem did not show up until you added the D drop? If that is correct, there is some thing wrong in the yard you just connected with the D drop. Also it is unclear to me where your Buss is connected to the rails. You only show 4 drops, is that correct?
They should have the same polarity as the straight track that runs across the top of the diagram. You can place your drop in the same place, just connect it to reverser. This assumes that I have interpreted your diagram correctly: that the reversing section is the area between the insulated gaps (remember, that yard needs to be fed the same way that the track it attaches to is)
I agree with Jerry. For good DCC running, you will need a lot more drops. It isn't like DC, the DCC signal degrades. You will want a drop every 6' or so.
Thanks woodone. I did have a problem in the little yard where I made that drop at D in the drawing. I do have other drops besides the 4 that I show in the drawing. After fixing that problem, hopefully it will work.
Thanks to everyone for helping me track down my wiring mistakes. All is well with the PenNscalets on the New Oxford and Pigeon Hills Branch.
