Hi everyone! I have many Z scale AZL locomotives with Digitrax and TCS decoders installed. From my understanding the DCC decoders works with PWM and the AZL motors are coreless or bell-armature. According to a German site, the life expectancy of a coreless motor is reduced considerably with PWM. "The following should be said about the bell-armature motors: 1. They do not break on the first impulse and also not break on the second. However, the life expectancy of the motor (which is quite large with DC voltage) is reduced considerably. This is due to the fact that the armature of a bell-armature motor consists of a very light, self-supporting coil. Due to the low mass, the speed of the motor follows the voltage very quickly. In the case of pulses, the motor is accelerated from 0 to 100% with each pulse (if it is not too short) (and, depending on the speed controller, is also braked again). The forces that act on the bell anchor during this great acceleration are enormous. The anchor can withstand this without problems, but not just as often. So if you operate a bell-type armature motor with DC voltage, it is accelerated (usually very gently) with every start, which it then goes along for a very long time. At Impulse, however, it is blown up roughly umpteen times per second, which of course then affects life expectancy..." (Google translate) https://www.tt-board.de/forum/threads/fahrregler-heisswolf.940/ In this case the author is manufacturing and selling DC analog controllers. He recommends only DC for using with coreless can motors. I wonder if the DCC decoders can reduce the life expectancy of Z scale coreless motors. Best regards, Bogdan
I don't know for sure, but I have soem coreless DCC's locos that have ran many years of train shows and still work. If I had an o-scope I would connect it to the orange and gray wires of a decoder and measure what comes out to see if it really is PWM or if it had been rectified to DC.
Will be pwm, that is why these decoders make engines run so smoothly. /Frank Verstuurd vanaf mijn ANE-LX1 met Tapatalk
Diito Robert. We have (several) 100's of AZL locos running 6+ hours at shows without failures. What is more of a concern would be the voltage of most all DCC systems is 15 volts, some are adjustable down, like NCE PowerPro or changing the Power source. Again, (several) 100's of AZL locos running 6+ hours at shows without failures. Enjoy running your trains first. If it ever happens, we will be the first to know.
