Hi all, I have recently bought a brass Overland Turbine/GP9 set. I have not yet tested their stall current (the Turbine unit has TWO motors, one for each set of trucks!), but I have noticed that they have can motors in them that are made by Buhler. Are these core-less motors? How can I tell? If so, what kind of decoder should a guy use with these motors? I normally buy Digitrax, but if we're talking core-less, I have heard that they will damage the motor.... BTW, these models were imported in 1991. Any help appreciated. TIA! -Ferro
Don't know the answer, but if no one here can help you can try the Digitrax users page on Yahoo. I saw a discussion on this there a month or two ago. Gary
Hi Ferro. Coreless motors need clean DC power to operate best and to prevent damage to the motor. Since DCC sends AC power to the track it is anything but ideal for such motors. That's the reason they get hot and are so noisy, esp. during slow speed operations. What You need is a decoder that operates the motor at a high frequency. Any decoder that can run an engine at atleast 16kHz is considered safe for a coreless motor. Anything beyond 16 kHz brings the noiselevel down dramatically. Every Zimo decoder can be set between 30 Hz and 32 kHz frequency. Zimo is, to my knowledge, still the only decoder that can run on 32 kHz, which is the closest You can get to smooth DC and therefore the ideal decoder for coreless motors. Go to this page Zimo Decoders If You need more Info click on "detailed decoder information" on that page, which brings You to the english Zimo website. Hope that answers Your Question. Merry Christmas to everyone! Art
