02-24-2018, 08:54 AM
Well, it took me some time to learn this lesson, after completing the pick up installation on the tender, I expected to be able to put the tender on the test track and be able to see/communicate with the decoder to prove the pick ups were working. That was not the case. However, when the locomotive was connected to the tender, everything worked on the test track. So after a few frustrating attempts of checking for continuity and looking for opens in the pickup circuit on the tender side and finding none, lead me to doing the pickups over again in this manner.
![[Image: 20180224_080753_zpsis02otxy.jpg]](http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j358/bowser0227/20180224_080753_zpsis02otxy.jpg)
And when I put the tender on the test track again, I still was not able to communicate with the decoder. Again when I added the locomotive, everything worked
. I was thinking that only the pickups on the locomotive side were working. Turns out after doing some research on the inter webs, that the decoder needs to see the resistance value of the motor to have the decoder function. Or a resistor(not sure of the value right now) can be added to trick the decoder that its seeing a motor to function. I did not know this :oops: .
The previous pick up installation with the Kadee springs was likely functioning, I just didn't realize it. Which lead to a lot of cursing and frustration down in the workroom for a few nights before it occurred to me that the decoder not seeing the motor could be the problem.
I kind of like this pick up installation better anyway because the weight of the tender assures constant pickup continuity. What I did do, that is not shown in the picture is that I have the insulated wheel set opposite of each other on both trucks. So there is pick up from each rail. In another words, front truck picks up from one rail, rear truck picks up from the other.
Tests on the test track show that the locomotive has returned to the scale speed of 48 mph, sometimes hitting 49 mph. There is one additional issue that I've noticed that I would like to try and clear up. When the locomotive runs in the forward direction, it's a tad bit noisy. Reverse is quiet. I had noticed that the worm shaft had some back and forth play in it. It was recommended on another post on this site to install some thrust washers on the wormshaft to reduce slop and might reduce noise. I ordered them yesterday from NWSL. So it will be a few days before they show up in the mail.
![[Image: 20180224_080753_zpsis02otxy.jpg]](http://s1081.photobucket.com/user/bowser0227/media/20180224_080753_zpsis02otxy.jpg.html)
And when I put the tender on the test track again, I still was not able to communicate with the decoder. Again when I added the locomotive, everything worked
. I was thinking that only the pickups on the locomotive side were working. Turns out after doing some research on the inter webs, that the decoder needs to see the resistance value of the motor to have the decoder function. Or a resistor(not sure of the value right now) can be added to trick the decoder that its seeing a motor to function. I did not know this :oops: . The previous pick up installation with the Kadee springs was likely functioning, I just didn't realize it. Which lead to a lot of cursing and frustration down in the workroom for a few nights before it occurred to me that the decoder not seeing the motor could be the problem.
I kind of like this pick up installation better anyway because the weight of the tender assures constant pickup continuity. What I did do, that is not shown in the picture is that I have the insulated wheel set opposite of each other on both trucks. So there is pick up from each rail. In another words, front truck picks up from one rail, rear truck picks up from the other.
Tests on the test track show that the locomotive has returned to the scale speed of 48 mph, sometimes hitting 49 mph. There is one additional issue that I've noticed that I would like to try and clear up. When the locomotive runs in the forward direction, it's a tad bit noisy. Reverse is quiet. I had noticed that the worm shaft had some back and forth play in it. It was recommended on another post on this site to install some thrust washers on the wormshaft to reduce slop and might reduce noise. I ordered them yesterday from NWSL. So it will be a few days before they show up in the mail.