Keep/Stay alive capacitor

[rogertra]

Have Bachmann considered installing a Keep/Stay alive capacitor as part of their standard circuit board?

I for one would not mind paying a little extra if such a useful feature was a standard fixture on circuit boards, especially on steam engines.

What's the general consensus, yes or no?

Cheers

Roger T.

 

[jward]

personally i'd rather all the decoders support cv5 and cv6, but  I wouldn't object to keep alive caps.

[rogertra]

I'm surprised there's only been one reply to this post.  You mean to tell me that nobody else on this group experiences their DCC locos stalling or temporarily losing power so your sound equipped units shut down for a second or two?

Do people know what a Keep/Stay alive capacitor even is?

Cheers

Roger T.

[jward]

evidently not. right now, not many decoder manufacturers are making keep alive decoders. tcs does but I don't know of any others. then again I am not buying sound decoders either.

my personal feeling is that a keep alive, while a good thing to have in dcc, will be a moot point if ez app/ blue rail trains catches on.

[Hunt]

I'm surprised there's only been one reply to this post.  You mean to tell me that nobody else on this group experiences their DCC locos stalling or temporarily losing power so your sound equipped units shut down for a second or two?

Do people know what a Keep/Stay alive capacitor even is?

Cheers

Roger T.

This person knows what Keep/Stay Alive product is and its intended use. I don't have power interruption due to dirty track or problematic track work so these are far down on my "to test and experiment with" priority list.



An aside -
"Keep Alive" is a registered trademark of TCS (Train Control Systems)  but is a term in general use today to refer decoder add-on product that uses super capacitors.

TCS - Keep Alive
Digitrax - Power Xtender
NCE - No Halt Insurance
SoundTraxx - CurrentKeeper
and others have the product.


To me - a "Stay Alive" product does not use super capacitors but uses older capacitor technology.

[rogertra]

I'm surprised there's only been one reply to this post.  You mean to tell me that nobody else on this group experiences their DCC locos stalling or temporarily losing power so your sound equipped units shut down for a second or two?

Do people know what a Keep/Stay alive capacitor even is?

Cheers

Roger T.

This person knows what Keep/Stay Alive product is and its intended use. I don't have power interruption due to dirty track or problematic track work so these are far down on my "to test and experiment with" priority list.



An aside -
"Keep Alive" is a registered trademark of TCS (Train Control Systems)  but is a term in general use today to refer decoder add-on product that uses super capacitors.

TCS - Keep Alive
Digitrax - Power Xtender
NCE - No Halt Insurance
SoundTraxx - CurrentKeeper
and others have the product.


To me - a "Stay Alive" product does not use super capacitors but uses older capacitor technology.

Do you run steam or diesel?  My diesels give me no problems on my Atlas "Super Track" code 83 switches but some of my kettles do.  The larger engines are usually no problem but I sometimes have issues with the smaller ones, like the 2-6-0s but really have issues with Bachmann's 4-6-0s.   My P2K engines are no problem neither are my Athearn steam.  What I think the main problem with Bachmann steam is they do not pick up using all the tender's wheels.  Just two wheels in the front truck and two wheels on the back.  Probably saves them a few pennies on the production line.

Cheers

Roger T.

[Hunt]

another aside,

Roger T.

Got time to kill or just curious --

Equip a DCC decoder equipped locomotive with a Keep Alive

Build a DCC powered reverse loop without a manual switch or reverse module to maintain polarity just a dead rail section of track inside the reverse loop a little longer than the locomotive and tender electrical pickups span.

[jward]

hunt,

I figured you would know all about these. this is your area of expertise.

I never thought about keep alives and dead rail to solve the reverse loop problem, but it does make sense. the caps would enable the locomotive to drift over the dead spot.

if I may ask, do you have a circuit diagram of your ad on stay alive circuit? that wuld come in handy in a small steamer like the usra 0-6-0 where there isn't enough room for a full sized decoder.

[Hunt]

. . .

I figured you would know all about these. this is your area of expertise.

. . .

I would not characterize it as an area of expertise.

. . .  do you have a circuit diagram . . . on stay alive circuit?

. . .

No, look to decoder manufacturers to see how they implement with their decoder products.

[rogertra]

another aside,

Roger T.

Got time to kill or just curious --

Equip a DCC decoder equipped locomotive with a Keep Alive

Build a DCC powered reverse loop without a manual switch or reverse module to maintain polarity just a dead rail section of track inside the reverse loop a little longer than the locomotive and tender electrical pickups span.

Hunt.

Good idea.  I've not yet started on my reverse loop staging yards.  There will be two, stacked one above the other in "crawl space" in the basement, behind one of the railway room walls but that's a good idea.  However, as I plan only to add keep alives to engines that need them, see below, I'll probably have to install reverse loop electronics that are avaible from several sources.

What I will do, is add a three inch or so dead spot, controlled by a DPDT switch, on my DCC test circle, to ensure Keep Alive equipped locos are working correctly.  I only plan to add keep alives to engines that require them, so mainly shorter wheelbase steamers.

Cheers

Roger T.