Adding "Keep Alive" to Bachmann sound locos.

[rogertra]

Anyone point to a guide or give instructions on how to add a "keep alive" capacitor to Bachmann DCC locos, especially sound locos?

Steam or diesel as I guess the procedure would be the same for both.

Cheers

Roger T.

[richg]

Connect them to the output of the full wave bridge that consist of four diodes. It may help some here if they use an Optivisor to check the decoders. Some decoders show five diodes in a group but only four are for the bridge. The diodes are easy to see.
Commercial stay alive's consist of super caps in series with each other and couple passive components.
Different DCC companies have different names for them.
They all come with instructions.

I have posted this guys site here before. Everyone, store the link in Favourites or Bookmarks.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/mainnorth/alive.htm

SoundTraxx has the Current Keeper.

Mr DCC calls it Stayin Alive. I have posted his site here before so I know you all have the link. Bruce does not mention the SoundTraxx current keeper yet but I am sure he will update his site.

Look at the sites for the different decoder companies.

Rich

[richg]

There are Yahoo Groups for different DCC decoder companies that users can subscribe to. I belong to a few of them and the keep alive is discussed at times.
Some may be interested in the sound car decoders that SoundTraxx sells. Keep alive seems to help those also. Seeing discussions about this in other forums.

Rich

[rogertra]

Thanks for the tips guys, I was also supplied one via one of my Yahoo Groups: -

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/mainnorth/alive.htm

The same one Rich supplied. 

Seems really helpful

Cheers

Roger T.

[dainis11]

datoru remonts
Thanks

[richg]

Just remember, if you have a loco with the shrink wrapped decoder, you might have to strip back the shrink enough to find the negative polarity section of the decoder.  The blue wire is the positive common lean.
No idea if the shrink wrapped Bachmann decoder has the negative lead easily accessible.

Rich

[dainis11]

Just remember, if you have a loco with the shrink wrapped decoder, you might have to strip back the shrink enough to find the negative polarity section of the decoder.  The blue wire is the positive common lean.
No idea if the shrink wrapped Bachmann decoder has the negative lead easily accessible.

Rich

datora apkope
Good point
Datora remonts

[richg]

Here is a picture of what is in a stay alive for those who are curious.
A few super caps in series with each other. Diode and resistor. One fellow makes is own by buying super caps from China for a few cents a piece. He adds the zener in case the DCC system runs at a higher voltage. A couple systems are capable of higher than 13 volts.
The total capacitance is less than the value of one cap because they are in series. About 0.2 Farad which is a lot higher tan a single standard electrolytic.
Connect the two leads to the output of the decoder full wave bridge rectifier.
Don't try this if you do not understand basic electronics. Caps don't like reverse polarity.



Three companies are getting around the pick-up issue but I cannot mention them here.

Rich