Hello Everyone, I'm new to the forum and I come with a question. I have a loco that I recently installed a loksound 4 board in and I've noticed that while the loco is sitting on the track unused, it gets very warm to the touch. The kind of warm like as if it's been running for an hr. All my other locos also sport loksound and none of them do this. This loco was rebuilt cause the original motor died and I've replaced it with the same type. Now I do know that sometimes speed step 0 doesn't actually cut voltage but just holds the motor still. But is there a setting in the decoder where I can tell it to completely cut voltage at speed step 0? This is my first time encountering this so I am unsure. Extra info: I mostly use lokprogramer to change decoder settings so if any are familiar with that, great! But I can also set cv's through it directly if need be. Thanks!
Is the loco making sounds while sitting? A lot of sound decoders (the ones I have) will generate heat from the sound. When running my Paragon sound equipped locos generate A LOT of heat when running unless I turn the volume down to 30-40%. They get hot enough that sometimes the decoders will start to act up and I have to shut them down and let them cool down. If I turn the sound off, they will run all day with no problems, so it's the sound portion of the decoder that's creating the heat.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, that makes me wonder. So I did some extra testing and it did turn out that it was the decoder that was getting super hot. I took the shell off and was surprised enough that I snaped my hand back. Coincidentally this decoder ,while still perfectly functional, did have a mishap that killed it's sound function. Maybe that is causing some internal "something" electronically. I wouldn't have thought sound could do that. I will look into this thank you so much! I'll try a new clean decoder and update with my findings.
It isn't the sound itself, but there is an amplifier on the board for the sound functions and it's the amp that is generating the heat......the higher the volume the more juice the amp draws and more juice equals more heat. I can't remember which but either Kato or BLI told me that heat from the sound portion of the decoder would/could cause issues, and my personal "testing" bears that out. With my BLI locos, if I don't turn the volume down, the locos will start to have DCC issues after about 45 minutes of continuous running.......turn the sound off and they'll run all day .......... I run with an NTRAK club, so all day is a possibility. At home locos never run long enough for the heat to be an issue.
OK issue resolved. I put in a new decoder of the same model. V5 instead of V4 and loco no longer feels hot. I guess the sound circuitry was on overdrive even if it didn't work. Thank you so much for cluing me into this I 'd have never guessed!
