Strange turnout-problem in a route..

[Per Olsen]

Hello!

I have a strange problem:
I have a short route, including a total of 2 turnouts, one double-crossing and two 3-way turnouts.  Each 3-way turnout has 2 drives.  All turnouts work perfect when clicking on any of them.  But inside a tour, one of them nearly always fails to change over.  Almost as if the commands arrive too fast?  Any ideas?

Regards,
Per.

[Ralf Krapp]

Hi Per,
your problem should be solved when you set the signal pause in your Tams master control from short to long. Please look in your handbook of the Tams control. In Chapter 6.4 on page 6.16 is described, how to change the signal pause from short (1,5 ms) to long (4,025 MS). I hope this will help to solve your problem.
I wish you a happy and successfull new year.

[Per Olsen]

Hello Ralf!

Thank you for your advice.  I have now tested it, and for a long while all worked fine.  But then again I had one occasion where the turnout did not change over.  After that, it worked fine again.  I need to test more, but it seems that whatever the problem is, it is now much better after this change.  I will try more

Happy new year to you too !

Best regards,
Per.

[Per Olsen]

Hello again.

We have been on holidays, so I did not have the chance to test any more, until today..  But today I have tested a lot..

The problem is still the same.  When switching only this turnout, there is no problem, it switches very reliably every time.  But inside a route, when several turnouts are to be switched, this particular turnout fails very often.  Almost as if there is not enough power to switch it, or the signal to switch is too short.

Any ideas?  This is driving me crazy

Best regards,
Per.

[Per Olsen]

Hi again.

I think I have located the problem....

I changed in the system settings/program settings/routes  from "Always switch ALL solenoid devices" to "Switch only, if last stored position is different".  Now the problem is gone.

So I think there may be a problem with not enough switching-power after all?
But I do want to change the setting back to my original setting..

Any thoughts?

Regards,
Per.

[Per Olsen]

Hi.

Not a lot of responses to this one….. 

I had to make this work.  So I tried first to supply the decoder with extra switching-power, I used 12v DC.  This was not better (in fact, a bit worse..).  Next I connected small, very low consumption, relays at each outputs from the decoder, and used the full 16v AC (yellow-line) for switching the turnout.  So the turnout is switched with the same power as when used in a non-digital layout.  This makes a bit more noise, but now it works perfectly.  Every time.

Thank you for all your help and advices, I really do appreciate all.....

Regards,
Per.