I finished wiring up my switches the other day and I was going to move on to my next phase when I discovered one of my track lines did not have any power. I still have not been able to figure it out. I checked all the fedders to make sure they were still connected. Is it possible for one disconnected wire to stop the whole line. It's the 2,4,6,8,9 line. Any help would be great. http://www.railimages.com/gallery/claudioippolito/ada [ April 15, 2006, 08:08 PM: Message edited by: cripp12 ]
Claudio: Very carefully recheck your wiring to make sure there's power to all your trackwork. One connection could have come loose when you wired your turnouts. How many feeders are you using? Stay cool and run steam....
on that particular line there are 4 feeders. and one underneath.(which I have no idea why that one is out because it is by itself.)
You'll have to recheck all your electrical connections one by one. Is the power off in that area or is there a short circuit? Stay cool and run steam....
Might be a short. How do I check for that. 1.Strange discovery. When I place a loco on line 2 power returns to line 9. But when I place the loco on line 9 there is no power. What does that mean. Is that a short. 2. If I take another loco and touch it to line 9 the loco on 2 races through the whole line. That tells me the feeders are generating power right. [ April 15, 2006, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: cripp12 ]
Check the wiring on the turnouts you just wired. Remove all the connections you made to the turnouts and then see what happens. Then hook up the trunouts agin one by one. Test your track after every turnout you wire. Stay cool and run steam......
Claudio: When you do any electrical wiring it's best to check the circuit for each connection that you make. That way you'll know it's correct. If you wire 12 turnouts without checking the system and then you find a problem, you don't know which turnout created the problem. Stay cool and run steam....
Bob I disconnected every turnout from the control boxes but nothing is happening. Is that what you ment. I even disconnected the main ac wiring to the beginning of the string of control boxes at first to see if anything would happen.
Do you have power to the rest of your layout? Disconnect all the wiring to the turnouts that you just wired. Stay cool and run steam....
yes I do have power to the other lines. 3 others. I have disconnected all turnouts. I am not sure what else to do.
Claudio: I feel for you. I am electron challenged, myself. PSG is helping you work through this and he is a good one to do it. Do you have an ammeter and do you know how to check electrical continuity? Do you have some wire "jumpers" to make temporary connections? These things might be used to help you isolate the problem. If you do not have these things, you can go back and re-wire all the track (after disconnecting), being sure to check for power each time you connect a track. This will certainly isolate the problem. BTW, I do think that you have some power to the tracks and there must be a problem to isolate and not a short. Don't be discouraged. I once created a reverse loop on my layout and didn't know it. My layout had a short for a month until I had a more experience modeler over who saw the problem right away! I'm learning, learning, learning...
Claudio I would add two or three more sets of feeders to that length of track that no longer has power. I'll bet you only have one set of feeders in that span of track. It isn't enough. One set at one end, another in the middle and and a third set on the end. I firmly believe in dropping a set of feeders for each section of track. It takes alot of time but the end result is very rewarding. The JJJ&E is all Unitrack and there are feeders for each section of track with no electrical problems. The reason being, each section of Unitrack has it's own set of feeders to the common bus lines. Stay cool and run steam.....
Here is a first step: Since you have lost power on each section in that partular grouping of sections, put all of your block switches to the "A" position on your selectors. If you have power when you do that, put the dead ones back on "B" and take a look at the lead that connects into the lower part of you lefthandmost Selector. It is probably loose or disconnected. If that fails, take a jumper ( a piece of wire with an alligator clip on one or both ends. Attach or touch your common to any of the tracks involved (2,4,6,8, or 9) and the other to the part of the lefthand most Selector B place. If you now have power, rescrew in the lead. If it still does not work, then replace the first Selector only and see if you get power. Barring that as a solution, detach each of your block feeds one at a time and test each time. Reconnect, and go to the next one, so on and so forth. If it is still inoperable, go to the switch feeds and make sure they are properly hooked up. Move a train by hand to a few different places. Your track might be dirty at the place the train is sitting when you are testing and that will drive you insane.
Mark, Here is what I did. I took the aligator clips and wire and attached one end to a group of commons underneath and the other end to the 2 line. As soon as I did that the loco started up in full force and finished the loop. Would this mean my problem is with the common even though the common is not set up for this line.
Now try it without the alligator clips with all block switches to the A position. If they run on 2.4.6.8.9 then my bet is the connection to the lefthand most Selector. If they are normally on A, throw all switches to B. The problem sounds like it is in one of the main feeds to the first Selector.
I removed the alligator clips and and I have no power in the A or B position. I checked the main feeds and they look fine. There are 2 feeds. The top wire from cab A to first selector which is a couple of inches long and second wire from cab B to the bottom of the first selector. BOB, I plan on getting my DCC unit at the end of the week. Wouldn't this problem transfer over to DCC as well. I wonder if I should forget about finding this problem.
not sure if this means anything but I disconnected a wire from cab B and connected my alligator clip from that to the track and it was sparking. Does that mean a short in the layout or just that I'm not supposed to do that.
Claudio: With DCC, you only need two wires that connect the rails to common bus lines under the benchwork. You don't need selectors for this, that or the other thing. There are no switches to throw or 2.4.6.8.9 to remember. Just turn the system on and run your railroad. You can run two or more loco's on the same track, at the same time without racing around and throwing selectors/switches or whatever. Have fun with DCC Claudio, you'll never look back. Stay cool and run steam.....
Bob- Claudio is referring to the blocks set by Atlas in the plan. 2,4,6,8 & 9 are shown in the diagram as being wired to one common and 1,3,5,7 to another. I am pretty sure the problem lies between the common bus and the Atlas Selector.
