LGB Shuttle Unit and Rack Loco

[silverfox]

Hi,
Has anybody had any experience of using the LGB L10340 shuttle unit with a LGB rack loco. I have one that seems to fail to pass the shuttle unit when approaching a gradient. The loco is OK on the flat and I believe it runs up the gradient without the shuttle unit - which would indicate - I think - that the decoder is OK. The loco is running in MTS mode with a Massoth XLS sound card. It would be useful to understand how the shuttle unit stops the loco and reverses the track voltage - I have the LGB user manual which doesn't do much for me. Any ideas would be much appreciated?
Thank you.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. [/i]Douglas Adams

 

[Zerogee]

I may be misunderstanding something in your question, but are you actually running the loco on DCC control, or is it simply DCC chipped and you're running it on an analogue power supply? I'm pretty sure the shuttle circuits run on analogue only.....

Jon.

 

[Neil Robinson]

One idea, as the loco is chipped, is to run on analogue DC and set a trigger near each end of the line to reverse the polarity.
The chips may be programmed with acceleration rate, deceleration rate and pause time that are all triggered by polarity reversal.
This will look much more realistic and be kinder to the motor and gears.
If you wish to have a safety overrun you could arrange for a diode fed section at each end, as for a standard analogue shuttle, to stop the train if the trigger failed.

 

[muns]

MTS and shuttle units do not mix very well (or at all).

Please elaborate on your setup.

 

[PhilP]

Of course, you *can* make a basic shuttle, just with the decoder, a reed switch, and a few magnets if it is an XLS.
Documentation is a little flaky/scarce though.

Not sure how good it is either??
Mark - comment, have you tried it?
PhilP.

 

[bigjack]

Reading the post it would appear that the system is DCC. If my understanding is correct that Shuttle unit won't work with DCC.

What you will need is this http://www.gscalecentral.net/8170001 < Link To 8170001 feedback module 2 of these http://www.gscalecentral.net/8420502 < Link To 8420502 Track contacts (the LGB ones work just as well) and a Loco Magnet http://www.gscalecentral.net/8420102 < Link To 8420102 works really well with my Massoth unit, but I think if you use the MTS System you may need this http://www.gscalecentral.net/8138001 < Link To 8138001 Dimax adaptor unit to go with it. But I'll pass that over to those that know.

If you watch this video filmed at our railway you will see a feedback unit at work. The clip starts at 7min 27secs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-LAG2rGaz4

 

[muns]

Of course, you *can* make a basic shuttle, just with the decoder, a reed switch, and a few magnets if it is an XLS.
Documentation is a little flaky/scarce though.

Not sure how good it is either??
Mark - comment, have you tried it?
PhilP.

That is the way I would initially try....not done it yet....must give it a go at some point....

 

[silverfox]

Thanks one and all - the input is really appreciated - I had intended to look at this, take some measurements and experiment today but it is proverbially,"persistently precipitating" out there - so will need to look later this weekend - really appreciate all the comments - thank you.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Douglas Adams

 

[pugwash]

The LGB shuttle unit is well and truly analogue only, even the LGB track cleaning loco won't work on a shuttle so on mine I have a switch to bypass the shuttle and make the line manual when needed.

Love the Douglas Adams quote

 

[silverfox]

Many thanks - hopefully when the water recedes I can get some more info - I will update when I get some info.
Appreciate the help folks.
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. Douglas Adams

 

[Philbahn]

Have you tried two track sensors, an old point motor 12010 and supllementary switch12030 and magnet and set the decoder as others have said.
Worked well for me untill I went all the way to massoth