Hi,
I just bought one of these lovely models for my layout, and ran it for a while under DC as per the manufacturers instructions, then I chipped it for DCC, again as per instructions. Since it has been chipped, it has run very warm, almost hot to the touch. It is the motor that is running warm
Other Heljan loco's I have exhibit similar tendencies, though this one runs the hottest.
Is there something wrong with the loco, or something else I need to do with it ?
TIA,
Ian
AFAIK, any DC motor will run warmer with DCC than with DC. This is because DCC does not produce smooth DC, but a square wave DC, and that heats up the motor (the same phenomenon was seen with the earliest transistorised controllers, which chopped up the sine wave DC into a kind of sawtooth wave.) The width of the square wave, ie the power-on time, controls the speed of the motor. Note that voltage is always at maximum, just applied for different average times per cycle for different speeds. At lower speeds, you may hear a distinct buzz, esp. on your Yurpeen 50-cycle current.
However, if the motor is running too hot to touch or close to it, something is wrong. My guess would the decoder. It could be that its maximum voltage is too high, hence the amps pushed through the motor are too high, too. Try another decoder of the same make and model - if the problem persists, it's some kind of mismatch between motor and decoder, and a different decoder should be used.
HTH
What sort of decoder is it?
If it can be set for "silent" or "high frequency" drive or some similar marketing speak then make sure that is enabled.
Heljan aren't fitting coreless motors, are they?
MBQ
Currently, I popped in a MacCoder, pending enough =A3=A3 to speak with Mr Turner about another batch of silvers. Not sure if the MacCoder has silent or HF modes...
AFAIK, it's not a coreless motor, as it appears to be a standard 5-pole jobbie.
Thanks,
Ian
LOL! Assuming the MacCoder is the LE1000A "a decoder that was designed very much with the UK market in mind", I just looked at the data sheet. So just what do they think the "British market" is? Like so many other areas of life, the answer appears to be cheap and nasty. It has a particularly sparse set of CVs.
It does not have high frequency drive. Moreover, it does not even allow you to adjust the low frequency drive. I suspect this decoder is just a very bad fit for the Heljan motor.
MBQ
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.