Dynamis Pro and Atlas diesel

[captain1313]

I think I have a very unique situation.  I have an Atlas Gold SD35 with QSI sound.  When I apply voltage to the loco my Dynamis Pro looses contact with the handsets and I loose all control.  If I take out the Pro Box everything is fine.  Bachmann checked out the Pro Box already and everything was fine with it.  After getting it back everything has been fine.  No problems. But today tried running the Atlas for the first time since getting the Pro Box back and my problem is back.  If it's just sitting there with all the sounds working everything is OK.  Get it moving and within 5-10 seconds you can tell signal is lost or blast the horn and you can't turn it off unless you power down the command station or wait 'til it times out.  This has been driving me crazy (short drive) but at least now I know it's the Atlas motor causing some kind of IR interference.  Has anyone had any similar problem? And if so, what was the fix?  Thanks for any help.

Kevin

[Jim Banner]

It does not seem likely that the Atlas unit is putting out infrared radiation, and certainly not from its motor.  The lights, if they are LED's, could in theory put out a bit of infrared but that would be easy to test for - simply turn off all the locomotive lights and see if you still have the problem.

More likely would be some form of radio frequency interference (RFI) that is being picked up by the Dynamis IR receiver.  Try positioning the base station complete with Pro box farther away from the track, extending the track wire if necessary.  If that doesn't work, try adding a very small capacitor across the rails, preferably on the crossing/connector section.  The first would help if there were direct RFI radiating directly from the motor to the receiver.  The second would be more useful if there was RFI travelling back through the track or if the motor/decoder combination in the locomotive were causing the DCC waveform to ring.  No guarantees that either or both together will solve your problem, but they are worth a try.

Jim

[NarrowMinded]

I've mentioned this before on other threads, you can use your digital camera to check IR emitters, the camera picks up the IR and converts it to white light on the viewing screen.

NM-Jeff

[captain1313]

Thanks,  I'll try the camera.  I did cover the entire loco with tin foil (reminds me of preventing spying ) but it made no difference.  With the lights and sound on there is no problem.  Only when power is applied to the motor.  Also, only happens with the Pro Box in the system.  It got better when I moved track power from Pro Box back to the Base station. 
What size capacitor should I try?

KEVIN

[Doneldon]

Cap'n-

That tinfoil is some gooood stuff. I had all kinds a trouble with the
Martians controlling my thoughts all a time until I wrapped my head
in some of it. If it works for my head it darn well oughta to work for
yur train, doncha thionk?
                                                   -- D

[captain1313]

D,
Glad the tin foil worked for you but I must have a loco from hell.  Since the tin foil didn't work, Jim may be on to something with something going down the rails.

Kevin

[NarrowMinded]

I used to work for a company called Tecknit Sheilding Systems years ago. built a lot of "Spy proof" rooms the tin foil comments had me ROTFL.

NM-Jeff

[Len]

I checked he Atlas forums and I couldn't find any reports of problems with QSI equiped locos and the Dynamis Pro system. Of course, that may just mean no one over there is using the Dynamis Pro.

Does the loco run normally on a DCC layout that's not using the Dynamis Pro, or does it do strange things there also??

There's also some additional documentation specific to the Atlas Gold SD35 available at: http://www.atlasrr.com/soundsupport.htm It may have some information not included with the loco that will help resolve the issue.

Len

[Jim Banner]

A small capacitor in this case might be 100 picofarads.

Jim