Alright, I think I figured it out, I used a multimeter to check where the turnouts were routing power, and Isolated the track that were causing short-circuits, and now I am running Short-Circuit free!!!

For now at least, I still have to wire the other half of the layout.

Steamtrains Wrote:Did you check to see if your feeders were all correctly wired (A to inside rail and B to outside..)..?? Betcha dimes to dollars you got one (or more) that are backassward...

I prepared for that ahead of time by using color-coded wire

P5se Camelback Wrote:

So ... are you going to leave us all scratching our heads? Why the suspense?

What was causing the shorts?

My apologies! I didn't know anybody was interested, It was because I was using Power-routing turnouts that require parts of the turnout to be isolated.

torikoos Wrote:What's up with the DCC system you've got? Are you certain there's no bad connection of even a short circuit somewhere that 'snuck' in while laying your track and wiring things up? Check if all frogs are clean and have no bits of 'junk' wedged in, and if you use Peco 'electrofrog' turn outs, make sure that the two rails leading up to the frog point have insulated rail joiners installed.. There may be other brands of turnouts that need the same treatment, but it's easily overlooked.

Koos

Well done for finding your problem Justin, although I had mentioned it to look out for it in my above post..
But glad you've found it by yourselves, that's the best way of learning things, and you're in great company. Even Einstein already said that 'he who never makes mistakes, never tries anything new' .

Good luck with the rest of the wiring!

Koos

torikoos Wrote:Well done for finding your problem Justin, although I had mentioned it to look out for it in my above post..
But glad you've found it by yourselves, that's the best way of learning things, and you're in great company. Even Einstein already said that 'he who never makes mistakes, never tries anything new' .

Good luck with the rest of the wiring!

Koos

Sorry I didn't understand it the first time I saw it, I am still new to dcc wiring and I really didn't know what you were saying

You are not alone, being new to DCC. I too, am at the beginning of a seemingly steep learning curve when it comes to DCC. But it will be a while before I get to experience the joy of adding wires to track work.

Right now, I'm trying to reassemble a totally torn down chassis and get it to run on straight DC.

After that, I'll be extremely happy if I can install a decoder and a speaker without causing a small cloud of stinky blue smoke.

You've begun your journey along the road to understanding DCC. You made a mistake, you've tracked down the problem and corrected it. You've had your first DCC "Aha!" moment. You are building a valuable knowledge base ...

Justinmiller171 Wrote:

torikoos Wrote:Well done for finding your problem Justin, although I had mentioned it to look out for it in my above post..
But glad you've found it by yourselves, that's the best way of learning things, and you're in great company. Even Einstein already said that 'he who never makes mistakes, never tries anything new' .

Good luck with the rest of the wiring!

Koos

Sorry I didn't understand it the first time I saw it, I am still new to dcc wiring and I really didn't know what you were saying

Don't worry, you're in great company, and that's what these forums are for, ask questions, and get help! The internet is great for that sort of thing, there's soo much experience on here, in all sorts of fields, although it is sometimes difficult to get to grips with terminology, and how people are writing things down. Hope you've learned something, and take it one step at a time, there's no need to rush, and you'll end up with a great layout, slowly , and patiently!

Oh and keep the questions coming, when you have any, and if you learn something new, post it here too. If it's new to you, chances are, sooner or later it will be new to someone else too! There's probably just as many 'newbies' on this forum, as experts and everything in between.


Koos

I was browsing Youtube last night and I can across a video somebody took of my club's layout, Their layout is one of the inspirations for my layout and I will try to model the same type of scenery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZ3s84k-Yc

It may have been an interesting video, but I backed it up three times because I wasn't sure, but I thought I may have heard a diesel sound decoder working but I wasn't sure.

Don't get me wrong ... I like music as much as the next guy (I do lean a bit more towards jazz) but i'm not going to sit through blaring rock music, straining to hear the decoder pump out the diesel sounds!

I was expecting to see a model railroad club's layout ... it may well have been there ... I just couldn't deal with the music pounding loudly from the spealers when I was hoping to hear diesel sounds pumping loudly from the speakers and maybe a little brake squeal as it stopped.

P5se Camelback Wrote:It may have been an interesting video, but I backed it up three times because I wasn't sure, but I thought I may have heard a diesel sound decoder working but I wasn't sure.

Don't get me wrong ... I like music as much as the next guy (I do lean a bit more towards jazz) but i'm not going to sit through blaring rock music, straining to hear the decoder pump out the diesel sounds!

I was expecting to see a model railroad club's layout ... it may well have been there ... I just couldn't deal with the music pounding loudly from the spealers when I was hoping to hear diesel sounds pumping loudly from the speakers and maybe a little brake squeal as it stopped.

sorry ... no, I'm not.

I agree, That user seems to put music in all his videos, near the middle the music stops and you can enjoy the nice sound of Diesel
And you could always just mute it.

I have decided that before I start scenery on my layout, I should take a step back and buy some foam, I may not really need it, but I know I am going to regret it later if I don't.

I lived through the pounding music (barely...) and was treated to some wonderful diesel sounds. But THAT BELL..!!! It sounded all the time...When stopped, when nearing the station..inside the tunnels....just EVERYWHERE..!! If one is to go through the trouble of using sound (which I won't), I believe it should be done in a more prototypical manner. Just because you have all the bells and whistles (literally), it doesn't mean they have to be on 100% of the time....

EEK!!!

I think my Turnouts may not be DCC-friendly!

I also had a good look at my switches and the frog is live and the points and connected :evil:
I also read that the Dcc-friendly turnouts should have a sticker on the box, which mine didn't

So, what do I do now?

Sorry you keep having trouble Justin, it does take the fun out of things a bit, but stick with it not all is lost: you could make them DCC friendly if they are not out of the box.
You'd need a razor saw, or better still a dremel motor tool with cutting disk to 'isolate' the frog from the rest of the turnout.
A good site that shows everything about DCC wiring and how to do turnouts etc is here: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.wiringfordcc.com/">http://www.wiringfordcc.com/</a><!-- m -->

Have a look at the links in the top left, there's one on turn outs, it will explain among others how to recognise a turnout that is not dcc friendly, and how to convert one etc.

good luck,

Koos

Justinmiller171 Wrote:I think my Turnouts may not be DCC-friendly!
I also had a good look at my switches and the frog is live and the points and connected
So, what do I do now?

Justin;
Don't panic!! Live frogs are really no problem with DCC any more than they are with DC. Just a matter of insulating the rails beyond the frog so that you can't get a short there. Couldn't find a suitable photo of an Atlas turnout, but this should explain what you need to do.[attachment=6855]You simply need to place insulated joints on the rails at the location show at the right side of the image. Hopefully, you didn't solder the rail joints and if not, then you just need to pull your track and install insulated joints at the location shown.

If for some reason you soldered the rail joints there, then you need only take a Dremel tool with a cut off disk (or if worse comes to worse - a razer saw) and cut a thin gap at the location shown with the red marks. Fill in the gap with plastic CA'd in place and after it cures, smooth out any rough spots. Be sure that you are only feeding power to the turnout from behind the point rails.

I will say that the Atlas insulated joints are pretty crappy - the plastic is very soft, so you might actually want to consider cutting the rail where shown and filling in the gap then use metal joints. On all my previous layouts, I used live frog turnouts exclusively and just placing the insulated joints where shown, never had any problems.

If you wanted to go to the trouble, you could cut the rails on both sides of the frog - making it dead, but then risk short wheel-based locomotives stalling in the frog if you don't have a way to power route the frog.

Hope this helps. Don't want to see you give up or think that you need to go out and buy a whole truck load of new turnouts.