I'm having problems with my new DCC-Sound SD45. It performs fine when running by itself, but suffers frequent stalls when I hook up cars to it. And the more cars I hook up, the more frequently it stalls. The problem is even worse when attempting to push (as opposed to pull) the cars.
For example, with thirty assorted 40' freight cars in tow (forward direction) it will stall and then restart maybe once while making a circle around my layout. When attempting to back up with the same number of cars, it will stall and restart repeatedly until finally stalling out entirely (IE I have to go rescue it manually).
This is the second one of these I've tried and both have exhibited the same symptoms. Other locomotives (with or without sound) perform just fine on my layout.
Anybody else run into these sorts of problems? Anybody have one that doesn't have these sorts of problems? Any suggestions from Yardmaster?
Thanks,
-Mark
Mark I understand your frustration as mine does the same thing.The engineer ins me is saying somehow the electrons are getting interrupted in getting from the wheels to each frame half.
The thing that I have found on these things is that if the wheels are not making direct contact at all times, it will stall. Try placing some weight on the locomotive and see if that works. I suspect that with all the weight it's trying to pull that the wheels are lifting up off the track, making it stall. Maybe you can find a way to visually verify this with the wheels.
Mine does the same thing. It's annoying. If I can't sell mine I'm getting an ESU LokSound with some decent capacitance so as to try to eliminate this.
We will test some on this end to determine if there is a problem.
I took out the stock Soundtraxx sound decoder and installed an old DCC decoder from a Bachmann GP7 I had. The thing ran a little hesitant at first, especially over small bumps and turnouts. However, once it got going, it ran well, both forward and backwards. It crawled along too. So I strongly believe the problem lies with the Soundtraxx decoder. There is not enough capacitance on the DCC decoder.
The other good thing is once I took out the stock Soundtraxx decoder the shell sat MUCH lower to the ground. It looked great!
To run in DC-Mode, Try using a DCC interface to Turn off the sound by setting CV128 to 0. I tried that with a Bachmann DCC Sound Engine such as a 2-8-4 and It doesnt stall as much in DC mode with the sound OFF. Set CV 128 to a number between 1 and 255 when you are ready to run with sound in DCC mode. Hope This helps.
-Aaron
The problems are the same using analog (DC) or DCC. I have both types of control systems.
Cheers,
-Mark
I have the same problems with mine. It stalls out no matter what. Just got a Kato SD45, and expect an ESU LokSound Select Micro in the mail tomorrow. I don't think I'll have any problems with that one.
Does this loco have the same power pickups as the older spectrum model? If thats the case give up, i hard wired those copper connections underneath the frame using very flexible wire directly to the frame, still have same problems as described she is a shelf queen now. The prices for these locos are way overpriced.
Yes it's the same power pickup scheme.
One could conceivably get a reliable pickup scheme on these locos similar to Kato and Atlas by grinding down each half of the frame so the shell sits lower, and getting rid of the metal on the frame halves where the copper contacts contact the metal frame. You can add Kato style copper pickup tabs above each truck for improved electrical reliability.
Of course, if you hard-wired the copper truck contacts, that SHOULD be bullet-proof.
With people returning these things left and right, I'm guessing that there should be bigger capacitors in the circuit board.
I honestly don't think the problem with this new release is the truck wipers. Although problematic, they can be adjusted to work correctly. And on the two new SD45's I had to return, the pickup wipers looked just fine to me (as far as how they were contacting the chassis).
Not saying that the problem definitely isn't the wipers, but I'm more inclined to believe it has something to do with the decoder.
Cheers,
-Mark
Just got my SD-45 yesterday and nothing but disappointment. Wish I had read about the problems others had before I bought mine. The engine stops frequently especially on turnouts. This is on a layout where 10 other engines from Atlas, Kato and Walthers will run all day without a whimper. The second problem is the coupler height. It is too high, about half a coupler higher than any engine or car I have. This causes the engine to drop the trailing cars whenever it meets the slightest twist or bump.
Any help on the coupler height adjustment? Based on the comments from owners, with Bachmann recall this engine?
Only thing you can do with the couplers is probably shim them so they're lower. As for a recall, there would have to be a LOT of unhappy people.
I'm guessing they'll redo the decoder. The sound and motor drop out is unacceptable.
Maybe I'll just put an ESU LokSound in mine. I love those things.
Quote from: Yardmaster on December 10, 2015, 01:59:46 PM
We will test some on this end to determine if there is a problem.
Any word on this? After three months my two SD45's are still just $250 paper weights. :(
I would try to add some capacitance to the circuit. I've shown how to do this in another forum. You should Google it.
I just bought a third one last week. This time I tried a different retailer and roadname (Rio Grande) in case the first two were from a bad batch or something, but no luck - all the same problems.
I've read that at least some of these run well, so I don't know why I keep getting all the lemons.
Cheers,
-Mark
Quote from: gatrhumpy on March 14, 2016, 05:37:07 AM
I would try to add some capacitance to the circuit. I've shown how to do this in another forum. You should Google it.
This thing already has two giant capacitors on it - you'd think that would be enough.
(http://www.spookshow.net/loco/files/bachsd45mech2.jpg)
Cheers,
-Mark
Well, that's not very much capacitance, even though the size is huge. It's only 200uF worth of capacitance. I can get 220uF in about a quarter of the size. In fact, I would be willing to be that replacing those capacitors with smaller ones and adding more capacitance could make these sweet runners.
However, the height of the shell is a deal-breaker to me.
Capacitors may help with the symptoms, but don't really address the main problem. Trouble is, I can't for the life of me figure out what that problem is. At this point I'm starting to get suspicious about the motor (or perhaps how the decoder and motor work together). I'm half tempted to rip out the decoder entirely to see how it runs under straight DC, but then I wouldn't be able to return it.
Cheers,
-Mark
Mark, I have run this on DC, and it runs perfect. I ripped out the decoder myself and no pickup issues whatsoever. So what it's doing, it's because of the DCC decoder/lack of capacitance.
I seem to have gotten somewhere, but at this point I'm not entirely sure what I've learned...
I really wanted to give this thing some lengthy break-in time, but with all the stalling that just wasn't possible. So, my bright ideas was to crank the base voltage on my DCC system way up (from 16V to 20V). This allowed me to run the locomotive fast enough that it would power through the stalls. And, lo, I was finally able to run it around in circles for many hours (both forward and reverse).
Initially there was a lot of unevenness (up and down RPMs), but eventually (after about 8 hours in either direction), performance smoothed right out. But then a new problem - loud screeching when moving in forward (but not reverse). I checked the guts and it didn't appear that there was any lubrication at all. So, I greased the gears and oiled the bearings and it quieted right down.
At this point it runs perfectly. But the big question is - why? The most likely culprit would seem to be the wheel blackening (which eventually wore off). But man, that's a lot of hours for wheel blackening. Also, wheel blackening has to go somewhere (IE the track), and usually when going through this process I wind up having to clean the track at least once to get the loco running properly. But not so in this instance - I haven't had to clean the track at all.
What's odd is that after breaking it in in forward to the point that it ran pretty well, it still ran just as poorly in reverse as it did before. And only after breaking it in in reverse did performance improve in that direction. And if it was a wheel blackening issue, I wouldn't think that direction of travel would matter.
Do motors need break-in periods? I've never heard of that before, but who knows with these new coreless motors. Maybe that's a thing now?
Any thoughts?
Cheers,
-Mark
It never occurred to me about the wheel blackening. That's just **** poor QC, IMO. If Bachmann wanted to make a great sounding engine that people will love, lay off that crap! People don't know what's wrong with it when it keeps stalling.
So it seems like the stalling stopped after you ran it around the track for more than 8 hours to get the wheel blackening crap off. It seems like people could do the same thing by running it through a wheel cleaner with brushes or using a new Brite Boy on it. This would allow the lubrication to stay on the gears and eliminate the screeching noise you heard.
I've heard that motors need break-in period, but, well, being an engineer, don't see the justification for needing one.
I'm glad that you figured it out Mark. Now if they could do something about the awful height of the thing in respect to the frame.
It could be the wheel blackening - but the fact that it started running pretty good one direction but not the other kind of leads me to believe that it wasn't. You'd think that performance would uniformly improve in both directions if wheel blackening was the issue.
Cheers,
-Mark
Quote from: Yardmaster on December 10, 2015, 01:59:46 PM
We will test some on this end to determine if there is a problem.
It's now six months. Any results from the tests yet? ???
Call the service department - the problem has been solved.
What was the problem?
Not exactly sure but I believe it has a newly designed contact strip.
You mean the four sticky upper wipers on (two on each truck) are no longer there or they've been redesigned?
I was told that the power pick up plate was redesigned - haven't seen one first hand. Next time I visit the service department I will have to check it out.
I ordered a set of replacement trucks from the service department (the parts department doesn't have them, or apparently even know about them). Will be interested to see how they work.
-Mark
Thanks, will contact the service department tomorrow.
Well good news to report. :D
I received two pairs of new trucks from the service department last week. Even under a magnifying glass I couldn't for the life of me see any difference between them and the originals to the extent that I had to mark the old ones before I removed them so I didn't get them mixed up with the new ones and put them back on the locos. I thought I was wasting my time but both SD45s ran smoothly as soon as I put them on the track without any of the previous stalls and stuttering, even the one I hadn't given any running in after I gave up on the first one. I took them to the club running day on Sunday and they performed flawlessly.
I have absolutely no idea what you did Bachmann but thanks.
Now I just have to renumber one of them. How about doing diesel locomotives in multiple road numbers, or at least two or three, like the other manufacturers do.
I couldn't detect any visible differences between the new and the old trucks either. Performance with the new trucks on my broken-in SD45 is the same as previously - decent enough for the most part, but it still suffers the occasional stutter/stall. Conversely, the Kato SD45 I have it consisted with runs just as smooth as can be 100% of the time.
-Mark
As an engineer, I'm curious as to what they did to the pickups.
It's got me beat. As myself and spookshow observed there are no visible differences but although results seem to vary you would hardly think they would go to the effort and expense of mailing two pair halfway around the world to me otherwise. I would also be interested to know what their findings were and what changes they made.
I wonder because they look the same spookshow accidentally got sent old ones? It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who has installed the replacement trucks.
Maybe different (or less) wheel blackening? I dunno, just speculating in a vacuum.
-Mark
I'm not entirely sure. I am curious as to what changed. When I had mine, I cleaned (chemically and mechanically) the wheel blackening crap off the wheels. That did not help matters.
Hello, all.
I've been eyeing this loco for some time. I finally pulled the trigger last week, hoping that previous issues have been addressed. I am happy to report mine runs as well as I could have hoped. Right out of the box, no stalls, great sound, and excellent running characteristics at all speeds (running Digitrax DCC). Whatever changes were made in production seem to have done the trick. I am extremely satisfied (and I am very picky)! I bought from LHS to facilitate return if necessary. Maybe its time to give these another shot...
Anyone else have a report on recent DCC Sound on Board experience with the SD 45? Would love to run one at the head of my Kato SD 45s for the horn and sound but the lighting CVs on Bachmann DCC on board engines leave me very disappointed given what I can do with Digitrax and TCS decoders in regard to pulse, strobe, flash and ditch light effects. For me the lighting is more important than the sound which I grow weary of pretty quickly. Cool lighting effects never get old as there nothing cooler than running 4 or 5 EMD SD70 ACEs with synchornized pulsing strobe lights......
Can anyone report on the lighting options for the EMD SD 45s? They look nice, but unless they are flawless runners with cool lighting effects, they are expensive paper weights.
If you want to upgrade the lighting effects, you'll either need to replace the decoder with another sound decoder or add in another function only decoder like a Digitrax TL1 or TL4.