Help with short problem on a #6 turnout

[ED209]

Hi,
Need a little bit of help trying to diagnose a problem with one of my turnouts.  I'm running EZ track, dynamis controller and a Bachmann 2-8-0 that I installed a Tsunami sound card with capacitor.  I added two turnouts to my track, a #6 right and #6 left turnout.  The right hand turnout works fine.  
I'm having problems with the Bachmann #6 left turnout (part#44859).  When my loco crosses the turnout frog area, it resets my sound decoder.  The strange thing is that if I run the 2-8-0 with speed 17/28 or higher it works fine.  There is no interruption in the sound.  However when it is 16/28 or slower the sound card resets.  I don't have this problem with the right hand turnout, it works fine with the loco running over it at any speed.  It's just the left hand turnout.  Visually I don't see any differences.

Here's a pic I took of my track.  The red arrow is the direction of the 2-8-0 and the red circle is the frog and once the wheels go over it the sound card resets.  
Is there anything I need to adjust or tweak on the turnout?  I don't have it connected to anything, I'm just using the manual slide switch for now.  Thanks in advance for any tips.

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

DCC is not my thing but with no other responses...maybe some basic tests for beginning troubleshooting might help. Does sound reset on the same switch while traveling in both directions? I would suspect the switch more if it does. Check moving rails to see they always, and /or, at what point/angle they receive power (or change polarity. Was turnout formerly on a reverse loop?) If the problem moves with loco direction,  I would check that ALL engine power pickups are OK. for starts. Traction tires, wheel power isolation, or spacing on a certain #(?) switch, with a certain loco may not affect you in one direction and may bite you the other. If everything is 100% mechanically, and electrically, you might look into backing the sound card power up with a capacitor or battery circuit. It could power the card during short coasts thru track with power losses. Size would probably limit it to a separate box car or tender in N, but it is done sometimes in the larger scales.

[Joe Satnik]

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,15616.0.html

[lesklar]

One other thing to look for is factory defects. I had multiple turnouts all of them worked well except one of them did not work correctly. It did essentially the same thing as yours (though I was running in DC only). If the locomotive went fast over the frog, it would go through. If I went slow, the loco would stall and I would have to nudge it.
I took the switch back apart to see what was wrong (be careful as the parts are held in by the backplate). When I removed the metal cover a screw fell out. I looked all over for the location of the screw and could not find it. I even took a known good switch apart and this extra screw was not in the other turnout.
I put everything back together (being careful to time the rack and gear, see Satnik's post link) and the turn out has worked flawlessly. To the best of my knowledge, the factory must of had an extra screw fall into the switch during assembly and was shorting out the frog?

[Mike C]

I'm guessing that this is possibly an electrical pick-up problem with the loco. Turn the loco over and make sure the post on the loco that the drawbar attaches to is clean and shiny . Sometimes they have a bit of paint on them from the factory. Also check that the drawbar wires firmly contact the truck wiper fingers on either side of the forward truck. Sometimes they need to be bent out just a hair for best contact. ....Mike

[ED209]

 
Thanks everyone for the responses.    I spent the past hour examining the loco and the track carefully.  The last thing I did was to take apart the turnout and adjusted the rack and gear.  Put all of it together and amazingly it works fine now!  No more cutouts/resets on my sound.  It works perfectly now.
Thanks again, I appreciate all the helpful advice to try to solve this problem.

Regards,
Ed

[mywhitedog]

I have been working with the switches and all have the same problem, over time the frog power routing will fail, the problem is the tiny contact that slides from one side to the other across a piece of PC board. I have made replacements on 2 switches so far, but may go to an external type connection. Since I am not using the control boxes that came with the switches, I may use a toggle switch or relay in the future, still working out the details. I am already using toggles, push buttons and relays on the control board for train routing and LED's for direction lighting.