DCC strange-ness


L&N Castle said:
Morning Guys. Concerning the subject of DCC quirkieness,I wonder if long time storage would effect decoder settings? I have most of my locos in storage right now,and I wonder if they could be affected in the same manner as one's on the layout?William.

Jarrell/William: The decoders use a type of memory for the CV settings that does not require power to maintain its memory. Similiar to an EEPROM. About the only thing that could change it would have to be electrical. Even the magic wand itself doesn't change the memory, but from a magnetic field induces a voltage into a circuit that does.

As far as the magic wand inadvertently changing the settings, the few times I have used mine required a very close proximity to do anything.
 
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RexHea said:
Jarrell/William: The decoders use a type of memory for the CV settings that does not require power to maintain its memory. Similiar to an EEPROM. About the only thing that could change it would have to be electrical. Even the magic wand itself doesn't change the memory, but from a magnetic field induces a voltage into a circuit that does.

As far as the magic wand inadvertently changing the settings, the few times I have used mine required a very close proximity to do anything.
Depending on the chip's memory storage you CAN effect it with a magnet. Now the question really becomes, not could the magnet effect it or not, but does he have a big enough magnet TO effect it (which i doubt). Alot of disk style hard drives use magnets (thus the magnets that were used in the WPF)...

Anyways to me, it would have to have been an electrical surge to do that, OR a short somewhere's
 
Josh, I hate to say this, but decoders do not use magnetic memory storage...totally different from common hard drives. Actual electronic components are designed to retain memory without power (non-volatile memory). Some designs allow for 10 years of memory retention. This is not saying that a large electromagnet wouldn't damage the electronics or even cause a reset. But, this is far from the reach of what we are talking about. Again, the magic wand induces a voltage in the reset circuit of the decoder for reset.

Your digital camera uses one type of this memory on the flash (flash memory) card.
A EEPROM is very much like a flash memory, but when it is being erased by an electric field/voltage it is done 1 bit at a time instead of in packets.
 
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RexHea said:
This is not saying that a large electromagnet wouldn't damage the electronics or even cause a reset. But, this is far from the reach of what we are talking about.
Exactly what I ment by that post... Although, of note, you'd be supprised by what kills camera memory cards...
 
RexHea said:
Jarrell,
I used chalks for the rusting effect on the roof and india ink on the sides. Before the india ink, I used a greyish wash (a little heavier on the paint side of the mix) on the building sides to give a more weathered look then only a light india ink wash. I don't bother with Dullcote on the chalk since I don't plan on touching it.

Are these the photos you wanted to see?
Yes, I noticed that board also, the one with 15 grains of chalk too much... :D
Rex, do you use alcohol to mix the india ink with? Thanks for posting these pictures again, that is a mighty fine modeling job.
Jarrell
 
Fellas, much as I hate to say it.... what's that old saying...misery loves company. It's comforting to know most everybody has pretty much the same problems...;)
I did a reprogram of the address and everything seems to be ok now except for one little thing. The locomotive will be just happily going down the line (in forward) and the rear light will all of a sudden come on and stay on. I'll stop the engine and reverse it, come to a stop and the light will go out (like it should) go into forward several feet and the rear light pops on again.
I'm going out there now and I'll try a complete reset and see what happens.
Thank for the suggestions!
Jarrell
 
SpaceMouse said:
Not if I'm wearing my aluminum foil pyramid.

Hahahaha! That is funny!

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Jarrell,
Yes, I use the India Ink in alcohol. I like to add about 4 or 5 drops of ink into a medium size bottle of alcohol and then if I need a heavier wash, I can pour it in a cup and add more ink. I don't remember exactly my mix for the mill. If I were you, I would start out with a weaker mix and judge by your own view.

Keep in mind that a saw mill's buildings are more weathered than grimy looking...even around a boiler house. They try very hard to keep things free of oily grime because of ruining the lumber. There is always plenty of dust or mud.

A sawmill is always: very hot or cold, very dusty or muddy, everything is razor sharp, and when you fall...very hard. No in-betweens! The Millwright work is only for young men.

If you are going for a modern mill, many use sawdust (even bark) from the mill as fuel for the kiln furnace. These furnaces have 2nd and 3d burn chambers that allow for an almost complete burn of fuel = very very little soot.:)
 
RexHea said:
Jarrell,
Yes, I use the India Ink in alcohol. I like to add about 4 or 5 drops of ink into a medium size bottle of alcohol and then if I need a heavier wash, I can pour it in a cup and add more ink. I don't remember exactly my mix for the mill. If I were you, I would start out with a weaker mix and judge by your own view.

Keep in mind that a saw mill's buildings are more weathered than grimy looking...even around a boiler house. They try very hard to keep things free of oily grime because of ruining the lumber. There is always plenty of dust or mud.

A sawmill is always: very hot or cold, very dusty or muddy, everything is razor sharp, and when you fall...very hard. No in-betweens! The Millwright work is only for young men.

If you are going for a modern mill, many use sawdust (even bark) from the mill as fuel for the kiln furnace. These furnaces have 2nd and 3d burn chambers that allow for an almost complete burn of fuel = very very little soot.:)

Thank you for the formula, Rex. I know what you mean about sawmills. I have a first cousin that, years ago, worked in one. One day he didn't move is hand fast enough and the saw went right up between the thumb and first finger and up and out the forearm. It took a few surgeons a while to reattach things.
He quit right after that.
Jarrell
 
Well, I did the complete reset and I thought I had it but I didn't knock on wood fast enough I guess. It started the reverse headlight thing again.
Oh well, I'll live with it a while til I can't stand it anymore and then get it fixed.
Jarrell
 
My dad spent a bit of time working for the Union Lumber Company (I found out about it after I decided to model it.) He tells me of how dangerous it was. He was working throwing chains in the camps and got a chance to transfer to the mill. He spent two weeks there, and witnessed two major injuries, not saw related, but things like breaking cables that snapped with such velocity that it cut off a guy's arm, etc. He transfered back to the camps.
 
Yes, they are extremely dangerous. While I was there and beside all the cuts and broken bones, two men were killed within 1 year. One had opened the door to the burner (kiln furnace) after it had been shut down for a couple of days to inspect a bearing. He looked in, saw that there were no hot coals, and proceeded to the bearing on the walkway. He tripped and fell into the ashes! The top of the ashes were cold and crusted, but underneath were red hot coals several feet thick. It burned him bad and cooked his lungs. The other guy was a maintenance tech that while changing light bulbs, fell 30 feet from an upper beam and landed on his head. No safety harness! Boy, OSHA was p.o.'d
 



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