Issues With Train Engineer

Orgiva

Orgiva

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I have a curious problem with my TE. I currently have 2 sets of points wired into the system. One is activated by pressing the A button and the other by pressing the E button. However, sometimes the other point is activated by the wrong button. i.e, press E and the point connected to the A button changes.

Any ideas?
 
Define 'sometimes'. - As in how often does this occur?

My guess is as there is not any error correction, occasionally a command gets garbled (perhaps arcy-sparky on the track, noisy motor?) and the signal is mis-interpreted.
 
If the problem is between A output & E output it is unlikely to be a problem with the Train Engineer as they are far apart on the PCB. More likely to be a wiring problem. To eliminate this try changing the outputs.
Do the wires to the 2 points run close together or in the same cable? It sometimes happens that the current pulse passing through the cable induces sufficient current in the circuit for the other point to operate it, especially if they are close together for a distance. Just like a transformer.
 
I've just been back out to check. The wires do lie on top of each other for about 5 yards. It seems that the A point is affected by the pressing of the E point button, but not the other way round. I'll try and separate the wires; what distance should that be?. Obviously the'll come together at the point control connection box.

Thanks for the help.
 
Just a short distance may help. I had a similar problem where 2 circuits were in the same cable. It may only happen one way if one point is easier than the other and needs less energy.
 
I sometimes get this. I use all LGB point motors but the problem did not arise with Aristo motors. Somewhere on the Aristocraft website there used to be something about adding resistors to some circuits when powering LGB motors but that will be long gone.
I use an old H&M controller to provide power to the point controller and have found that reducing the voltage a bit still changes the points well but prevents unwanted changes.
I guess the reason must be that the LGB motors are more efficient and need less current than the old Aristo ones.
 
Dutchelm, spot on!. Separated the wires and re-routed the A point wire, reconnected it to the box and it now works faultlessly. Thanks all for the input.
 
All down to a phenomena known as "EMC" - Electro Magnetic Compatability
Where one "circuit" can be affected from the signals from another.
We used the acronym "SEXAPI" when designating wiring in aircraft

S= Susceptible (to EMC)
E= Emissive (Give out signals)
X= "Special" (read nuclear.....)
A= Armaments
P= Power
I= Instrumentation

Gotta be real careful on aircraft wiring - Don't want the drop tanks being dropped when you selected wheels up......

Its generally the distance that the emmisive and susceptible are placed together over. This can be overcome by twisting the wires as it is the cross-sectional area of the wire that is the "cause" of the EMC
Twisting the wires gives less of a cross section over the distance - unlike if the wires are laid together - parallel.

You have all probably experienced EMC at some point - Think what happened in a car listening to Medium Wave when you drove under power lines strung from pylons
 
Hells teeth, Military Aircraft Wiring knowledge now. Is their no end to the expertise amongs us? Fascinating thread.
JonD
 
I know they use 'twisted pair' in computers and high end speakers, now I know why!
Thanks
 
stockers said:
I know they use 'twisted pair' in computers and high end speakers, now I know why!
Thanks
Click to expand...

Oh Yus!
And in a twisted pair network cable, each pair of wires has a different number of twists per metre, to avoid them interfering with each other..
 
If just 3 yards of cable produces enough energy to change a point just imagine what 10 miles of the stuff will do. Even worse if it is alongside a high voltage power cable.
 
During a post-war US nuclear test, they caused enough EMP to blow street-lights in Hawaii! - They were fed with overhead wiring between the poles..

Imagine the damage to infrastructure if there ever had been a detonation in anger?
 
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