Or, 'Do they all do that?'
Recently bought a Klein Dicke loco split from an LGB digital start set. I Currently run DC, and will for at least the forseable future, so I plonked it on some DC-fed track to check operation under a 'normal' supply.
Starting voltage is a little higher than for non chipped locos, but takeoff is very smooth and controllable and the lights come one first so I don't actually see that as a problem in it's intended duties as station pilot.
BUT, if I run the loco forward at 9-10v or more and then stop it and sharply reverse the polarity - much more quickly than would be prototypical, to the point where something like a stainz might briefly spin its wheel - the electronics seem to get confused for half a second, and it stops and then sets off forward again. An inch or so on further down the rails, it realises its mistake, stops again and starts off backward as demanded by the revised polarity. Do they all do that on analogue?
Obviously when the loco is runnning on DC, the decoder chip is waiting for enough volts to wake up, deciding it's not in a DC environment and only then routing power as needed, and I'm guessing it's just down to it being a bit slow, or maybe some registers/memory locations (in the processor definition, not the DCC one) keeping ghost images of their old settings during power down. Not too worried, if it proves too difficult to control in use, I'm not above rewiring it as a DC loco, but I'd love to know..
Thanks,
Jonathan
Recently bought a Klein Dicke loco split from an LGB digital start set. I Currently run DC, and will for at least the forseable future, so I plonked it on some DC-fed track to check operation under a 'normal' supply.
Starting voltage is a little higher than for non chipped locos, but takeoff is very smooth and controllable and the lights come one first so I don't actually see that as a problem in it's intended duties as station pilot.
BUT, if I run the loco forward at 9-10v or more and then stop it and sharply reverse the polarity - much more quickly than would be prototypical, to the point where something like a stainz might briefly spin its wheel - the electronics seem to get confused for half a second, and it stops and then sets off forward again. An inch or so on further down the rails, it realises its mistake, stops again and starts off backward as demanded by the revised polarity. Do they all do that on analogue?
Obviously when the loco is runnning on DC, the decoder chip is waiting for enough volts to wake up, deciding it's not in a DC environment and only then routing power as needed, and I'm guessing it's just down to it being a bit slow, or maybe some registers/memory locations (in the processor definition, not the DCC one) keeping ghost images of their old settings during power down. Not too worried, if it proves too difficult to control in use, I'm not above rewiring it as a DC loco, but I'd love to know..
Thanks,
Jonathan