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Ground Planes

Loose-CabooseLoose-CabooseOGR Forum Member

Alright here is where I am at.  I have found my connection to earth ground.  I connected a 10 AWG wire to earth ground.  I applied 18volts to the tracks that are parallel with two engines located on each of the parallel tracks both headlights on the engines flicker.  I then place the 10 AWG wire on the train board between the tracks.  Both headlights still flicker.  If I raise the wire to the height of the engines then the lights stop flickering.  I was more optimistic that laying the wire on the train board would eliminate the flickering.  Now maybe I am chasing a non problem.  My engines have no communication problem no where on the layout and yet the headlights flicker all over the layout where there are parallel tracks.  Am I chasing a non-problem?

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cjackcjackOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Under the shell of the engine, there is an antenna that needs to receive a signal from the ground wire in the house. If the you don't have a good signal unless you raise the house ground wire over the engines, then that's where it needs to be. I wonder how it would work if it were at the ceiling. Is there a house ground wire in the ceiling over the layout?

There is a variety of reasons going around as to why two parallel tracks would cause an issue with the signal from the air. The two track signals out of phase reaching the engines, too much track signal out of balance with the signal from the air, etc.

 

Loose-CabooseLoose-CabooseOGR Forum Member

Ok time to admit stupidity.  I have been looking at my two parallel loop tracks.  When I place the wire between the engines one stops blinking and there no change to the flickering on the engine located on the inside loop.  The problem is, there is siding inside the inside loop.  When I place the 10 AWG wire between the siding and the inside loop the inside loop engine stops flickering.  I have a lot of ground plane wire to run.

 

Dale,

There is continuity between the exterior lug and the ground hole of the receptacle.

S StubaiOGR Forum Member
Loose-Caboose posted:

Dale,

 

I measured the receptacle where the base's walwart is plugged in, to the external lug.

 

BTW I have your MANCO cable.  It has served me well.  I am now getting Lionel's WIFI box along with the SER2 and I am afraid I will be retiring your cable.  Thanks for your help on this Forum. MANCO Cable?

Are you interested in selling the MANCO Cable?

S StubaiOGR Forum Member
Dale Manquen posted:

Stubai, what problem are you trying to solve?

I have a United States Army Genset Switcher (6-28382) which is not the Vision Line Genset. I just took it out of the box and loaded it into my Legacy Control System.  As I was testing it, I noticed that after a certain period of inactivity it will shut down by itself (at least the rail sounds do) but it will automatically restart after another period of inactivity from the CAB.  While it's shut down, I can hear a faint beeping sound coming from the engine which increases in frequency/volume just before it starts back up. Although I can't find anything in writing about this feature, it isn't the problem I'm writing about. (I would however like to know where to go to read about it) The problem is that after I shut the engine down via the remote, it will start back up by itself after a while even after I have powered the remote off.  I still have power to the track and I can hear the same beeping sound coming from the engine which also increases in frequency just before it starts back up. I sure would like to know if this operator error or if I have a defective engine. I did verify that the switch is in the run position. I have other Legacy locomotives and none of them exhibit this behavior.

I did not unplug or shut off the legacy base after powering down the remote and the track power transformers were still on. I'm using Lionel Power Bricks and a DCS TIU (see picture). The restart happened after I moved the engine off of a turntable and onto a spur track which is in a roundhouse (see picture).  I have 8 spurs in the roundhouse and they all share the same block of power. Each spur consists of a 40 inch section of Atlas O straight track and I have the two outer rails tied together at one end. The roundhouse is 20 feet from the legacy station. Based on your comment about losing the legacy signal and because this is a new section of my layout with new wiring, etc., tonight I'll double check all wiring and voltages. The power to this section of the layout goes through one DPDT switch which I use to provide power to a programming track. I did a DCS signal check with an MTH engine and recorded a level 10 on all of the spurs. Is there a way to do a similar track signal check with the legacy remote?

Loose-CabooseLoose-CabooseOGR Forum Member

I would suggest you communicate with Dale as you are.  My MANCO cable is for the addition of a serial port since I needed, to connect a PC, the legacy base, the TMCC base and my IC Control TPC, BPC and ASC's.  It won't help with obtaining a favorable ground like his new cable is able to provide.  If you still feel you would like my cable, we can talk

Dale ManquenDale ManquenOGR Forum Member MEMORIALIZED MEMBER

Jan, Mike Reagan's video on TMCC Basics is filled with errors and totally misleading.  It should not be posted for viewing.  Even Jon Z. at Lionel admitted it was wrong.

1.  The antenna in the locomotive does not pick up the signal from the outer rails.  That signal is conducted through the wheels directly to the ground side of the command receiver board.  The antenna picks up the airborne signal from the "earth ground" house wiring that is conducted from the Base through the wallwart's cord and U-ground pin.

2.  The sync pulses are not the cause of any problems.

3.  A "ground plane" is not a barrier or reflector for the command signal.  It is a radiating surface for the earth-ground component of the command signal, something that Mike doesn't discuss at all.

4.  Mike's scheme of bridging between isolated rail sections is poor.  It is better to connect the capacitor between the Common rail and the isolated rail.  His scheme creates a series string of capacitors requiring the command signal to go through the entire chain of capacitors to reach the end.

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