How to fit a stay alive capacitor Three in series gives total of one third of the individual value, and so on. This all means you can't kill power to stop something any longer. UPNICK. This method was shared by user Art Dent on RMWeb (https The J72 Gets an upgrade as I fit a Stay Alive and DCC sound in this Model Railway Tutorial!Become A Channel Member: https://www. The You can fit a capacitor to the cheap and chearfull Hornby R8249 DCC decoder chip to keep the decoder and your locomotive alive for those vital seconds when it encounters dirty Therefore, a ‘Stay Alive’ should only be used on DCC powered layouts when a DCC decoder is fitted. A wired version comes with flying leads and is best suited to older Hornby and Lima loco's (pre-DCC) An 8 pin version ready to plug directly into an 8 pin socket normally used f. The Zimo MX 645 comes with two wires to connect to a capacitor. Anyone here know how to fit a "stay alive" capacitor to the Standard Hornby Decoder and the Sapphire and has a circuit diagram they can share here?I want to have a little experimentation to find a capacitor that will suit the Hornby 0-4-0's and 0-6-0 when running over rough pointwork. We feature beginner and advanced help on all model railroading scales, including layout track plans, model railroad product Welcome to Part 2 of our in-depth mini-series looking at improvements and upgrades to Hornby TTS sound decoder-fitted locomotives. Save Share Zimo have supplied instructions and a kit of parts to fit capacitors to their decoders for several years, and I think TCS used to provide similar Page 9 shows the pin-outs. And most of these will have setrack points somewhere. For a single capacitor, you need at least a 16 volt rating and at least 100,000 microfarads to get a second or two stay alive ability - plus a resistor and diode . IF YOU HAVE READ OUR digital sound Locomotives can stall on points or dirty track, a stay alive will store energy to help it in these situations. I have googled it i also tried build a keep alive using 16V tantalum capacitors which are smaller than equivalent electrolytics. You can use capacitors rated for even higher voltages, just that they are bigger and more expensive. The Lais It works in a similar way to 'stay alive' or capacitors which are available from other manufacturers. Today we take a look at the range of solder free plug and play stay alives from the DCCconcepts range designed with native support for the Zen black and Zen I'll routinely test stay-alive installations by running a loco onto a piece of paper to see how far it goes. 3. Was just wondering if it's at all possible to fit some sort of stay alive capacitor system to dc locos, due to some suffering on points, this is includes a new shunter from hornby, or if its more hassle than it's worth. Fitting a decoder to an old Hornby D49, and adding stay alive to a Bachmann V2. 1) SUPER CAPACITOR KA/STAY-ALIVE PRODUCT LIST (7/17/16) Here is the complete list KA products You book the DCC decoder fitting service on our website. 0 installs, same think for fitting dcc decoder to Bachmann class 08 with say alive and how to remove the body Fitting Stay alive capacitor Fitting Stay alive capacitor. 4 DCC has specific pads for connecting keep alive, as does the Zimo MX621, and the Lenz Gold and Silver Minis. The back of the manual, Most of my locos are also 'noisy' but none have stay alive. But I also have a lot of very old Jouef from the 70s and 80s with very poor pickup on two wheels only. To do this, follow this CV sequence: CV 31 = 16 CV 32 = 0 CV 339 = 0 or CV323 = 0 for Micros or DirectsYou should now be able to program your decoder accordingly. To get enough 'stay alive' time you need a large capacitance, but using standard capacitor construction a large capacitance means a physically large size. track is all clean, trusty track rubber and nail file Typically the largest capacitance that will fit in a typical HO locomotive is around 3500 uF. The reverse of stay-alive if you like - it stays alive when it should have died. Even one second in the right place can be enough to have the loco go over the edge. Keep alive/Stay alive capacitors, they're nice and they work. The TCS KA1 also has two wires - a blue marked as 1 The Next18 socket in the loco will include pins for decoder positive and decoder negative. I recently I couldn't find anything on the internet on how to do this, other than permanently connect a wagon behind with the capacitor in that, so I thought I'd write up what I did. Content I started. In fact, once charged, they have enough power to run an average OO or HO Locomotive more than two metres with the track power removed! They are available singly (DCD-SA2-SS. Another detail is that a stay-alive stores power not just to keep the motor running but to also to keep the decoder chip, lights and sound-generators running. Do you want a stay-alive capacitor fitting at the same time? With those, there is decoder positive and decoder ground, and can fit any stay-alive module provided that includes the charge-regulation components (minimum of resistor and diode). Stay alive capacitors for DC locos. Im just getting back 4mm modelling, but have been quite heavily involved in a friends 7mm layout, using Digitrax DCC and Zimo decoders. 35" x 0. Although it is possible to hide up some little tantalum capacitors (up to 1000uf) 4700uf 25v keep alive capacitor kit of components to make a basic stay alive unit for use with DCC operated locomotives. Either way it doesn't matter anymore, it does mean though you might be able to find room for "stay alive" if the Powerpack won't fit. I've had a lot of success with the Zimo stay alives . So if we could find a super capacitor of value 200,000 micro Farads it should be considerably smaller in physical size than five 1 Farad capacitors in series. Available loose as individual capacitors (220uF), or joined in lots of 2 (440uF), 3 (660uF) or 4 (880uF), please I always recommend dealing with the poor pickups issue before spending money on a stay-alive, but a capacitor and diode aren't going to break the bank I suppose if you have the necessary skill. This would have needed the Staco 3A stay alive controller to be installed. This kit makes up a stay alive, or keep alive, unit that can be In this video I attempt to fit a stay alive capacitor to an older non-dcc ready Bachmann class 08 shunter. I have installed a 21 pin DigiTrax decoder which didn't ship with a capacitor. In Part 1, we looked at speaker upgrades, and in this second part we’re looking at making a stay alive capacitor unit and fitting it I've searched the internet, can't find a picture or diagram of where to connect a currentkeeper to a LokSound 5 DCC decoder. With a good eyesight and a very small tip you can solder wires direct to the socket. Please sign in to comment. They will typically give 2-3 Hello, I have a question. Increase the depth of the recess so the speaker at least last i checked, super-cap voltages weren't rated very high. If really worried about run-aways with stay-alive capacitors, then Lenz Wise words Steve. 3-wire Stay-Alives allow completely solder-free Plug-&-Play connection to our Zen Black and Zen Blue+ decoders for the simplest installation possible. The process is The decoder inside holds its internal memory for 30 minutes and would hold longer if I didn't fit a stay-alive discharge resistor. Once the decoder was installed the loco was tested on the track. I removed the DCC socket and hard wired the chip, thus removing the circuit board with its various chokes etc. Can you install a sound chip and a stay-alive capacitor? Can you All is still a very tight fit but it allows us to use the fully featured ZIMO MX645 decoder and its direct hook up to the keep alive; The keep alive is one I make up myself specifically to fit in the underframe as the commercial ones don't fit. You could recycle it to your next DCC Ready Loco purchase. But still the same issue persists. This is in contrast to the nearly 1F rating of a super cap. However, I do own an Athearn Baldwin S-12 and two Bachmann Alco S4's that could require a different shape module to fit inside the end cabs since the area under the hoods are already pretty full. My finished Stay Alive modules worked out to dimensions similar to that of a TCS KA2 Keep Alive module and should fit most locos without much fuss. 00 Add to cart; LaisDcc Stay Alive Pro 1 $ 27. I decided to experiment so when the time came to fit the sound chip to my J15 I asked youchoos to fit (normally do it myself) and to add a 17000uF stay alive capacitor to see what effect it would have - notwithstanding the key requirement for well fitted, maintained and clean track above all else. I've never found any gold caps which will fit into my locos, so haven't tried to work out appropriate circuits. The issue is that large uF value capacitors required for stay alive function use capacitor technology that is polarity sensitive. With a "Stay alive" system, wouldn't the loco have just enough juice to carry on until contact were re-established? Or, because the loco has been running at 5 volts - would the capacitor simply not be charged up enough for From what I can see Rallymatt it is just a bank of capacitors, there may well be a series resistor but with only a two wire input it can't be too complicated. The capacitors were added one row at a time, using a normal soldering iron to melt I'm puzzled by part of your reply. To fit a 'stay alive you just have to identify the positive and negative DC side of the bridge rectifier and connect your 'stay alive' to those two locations. So, a stay-alive is attached to that circuit board, and will automatically connect to the decoder when the decoder is fitted. On the Next18, there is decoder positive (blue wire) and decoder ground (0v, no idea what colour). Stay alive has a place, but only as a last resort. We look at In this video, we look at adding a stay alive/keep alive unit to Hornby's TTS sound decoder. 1) or in cost-saving packs of three (DCD-SA2-SS. Evening,I am looking to install a stay / keep alive capacitor into the 0-6-0 Class 08 that comes as a part of the mixed rail set. It is also used as a cure for intermittent sound module operation. 5s of power at 0. This loco has never run that well, stalling at the merest hint of dirty track and not liking slow speeds, growling and stuttering along. I 've looked at the sbs4dcc. The 100k-ohm resistor Well this is NOT a review as much as it is a HOW TO on a very important install of the KA1 series Capacitors for the Soundtraxx decoders. A new smaller stay alive has been developed for the HM7000 family of DCC decoders. A simple push sets the unit r Our current range of 2 and 3 wire Stay-Alives has been carefully crafted to give you the smoothest possible driving experience. gregc. That’s going well until I find something slightly out of the ordinary that my very basic knowledge cannot cope with - and I have such a situation this morning. The reason is not only cost, but the ability to mold the package of capacitors to fit the available space. Its power distribution is managed by the ZIMO decoder when the chip detects a loss of track power. again, i assume the caps from Also, a reverse-biased diode should be placed in parallel with the 1k-ohm resistor so that the stay-alive only discharges its energy when the track voltage reduces below Can stay alive capacitors be wired into analogue loco's? With the smaller loco's like the pecket, sentinel and B4 I expect they will be heading to smaller layouts. To me, 'stay alive' is a bit of a band-aid which allows people to carry on bad practices without solving them by masking them. Can be used for sound, lighting and motor circuits. The problem with attempting to get more "stay alive" capacity out of a flywheel at slow speed is - well - slow speeds. Forum menu. Thus, if you fit a "large" capacitor to your Loco, then you will find that, \$\begingroup\$ @smokeyone, the capacitor voltage has to be higher than the highest voltage you are going to apply to it. After trolling round the net for a bit of help regarding stay alive capacitors I found this great forum and the excellent article by Fishmanoz. I have been told by Hobby-trax if a loco is stubborn that you can fit 2 Capacitors which works even better. Stay-Alive/Capacitors for 12vDC Navigation links. I assume this must the technique Zimo use as I have never had an issue reading CVs with their "stay alive". Whatever the case connection to the decoder is as here: Hi I’m wondering whether to fit a stay alive capacitor to my Farish 150/2 (371-329) due to sporadic stalling at medium-low speeds. I installed a Tsunami Medium Steam decoder in my Rivarossi F-19 pacific But due to its light weight it stalls a lot Have you had any success with installing Stay alive capacitors from TCS if so where do they attach to the decoder ? I currently have it on the work bench installing more weight in the tender but doubt that will help much Sad thing is no one makes a modern The LaisDcc Stay Alive Lite 1 offers a large amount stay alive ability for its packaged size, pushing the boundaries of standard electrolytic capacitors and super capacitors. Now it seams foolish to expect these little models to manage them without a little boost. I am very interested in trying to fit one in on my n scale S 1 sound equiped loco. Using a super-capacitor instead of a normal capacitor for "stay-alive" or "hybrid-drive" action for your locomotive. https://paypal. I have few recent locos with pickup on all wheels that do not require stay alive. It's quite difficult to find the space for a big enough capacitor to Model Railroader is the world's largest magazine on model trains and model railroad layouts. But did it workI bought the capacitor from BLW The plan is to cut both wire harnesses about in half then put the Soundtraxx plug onto the TCS keep alive. I had an interesting conversation with Jens Emmermann at the 2mm Expo in Oxford during June 2013. We construct our Hi, I was hoping I could connect some capacitors to my decoder buddy to keep my loco alive when there are interruptions to power in the track. Taking a few measurements, it appeared that a TCS KA1 Keep Alive (1. But there is always a way to improve. I am able to keep the sound and lights going, but as soon as the loco loses track power, the motor stops. 2 - If possible, is there a step by step guide to actually do this. However I'm not going to pay £30 + for an ESU power pack. Dcc concepts do stay alive modules to retro fit to dcc decoders. It's usually a simple matter of replacing the stock capacitor with the keep alive. . Great service from there, incidentally. Since the 08 has a short wheel base a stay alive capacitor was added to avoid stalling on points. The only Ideally, you should disable the capacitor before doing any sort of programming. I've come to the conclusion that all sound equipped locomotives *MUST* have a "Keep Alive" type of circuit. So while the Lenz Gold directly supports a stay-alive capacitor, you can install one on other decoders - to keep the decoder alive, but not necessarily the motor. For a 12V system, the capacitor has to be at least 16V. This has a 3131 decoder (see picture) The Stay Alive didn’t come with any instructions, so I am clueless as how to install it. com/channel/UCx7OfzRi It is far, far easier to fit a stay alive on the DC side of the rectifier. Patreon Link. But then set the run-time to sensible. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm a busy man. Parts - 870021 Laisdcc kungfu decoder and TCS Ka4 capacitor unit. Okay experts here's a question. Small DIY Anti-flicker / Stay-Alive / Keep Alive unit for coaching stock and/or Brake/Guard's Vans. I make my own StayAlives and acquired a loco with this decoder. In order to get the speaker to fit, If my physics is correct, on a 15VACC DCC system a 2 *330uf capacitor stay alive (which is what I'm using) will store 0. Am I safe to connect the red wire from the plug to the blue wire on the keep alive and then the black wire to the black/white wire? There seem to be places where only one or two bare capacitors will fit in the model. The stay alive capacitors and LifeLink PCB is exactly the same length as the loco PCB. I Commercial stay alives are designed to work with DCC decoders, because the decoder has a bridge rectifier and the stay alive is wired across the rectifier output that is always the same voltage polarity. Depending on stay-alive solution, you either need ( Capacitor positive and Ground ) or ( Decoder Positive and Ground ). I also intend to fit stay alive capacitors to those that Hello I've just found out you can fit a stay-alive into the TT120 08 Shunter without any modification! How to fit a Stay-Alive into a Hornby TT120 08 Shunter. The two wires are coloured blue (to the capacitor positive) and black (to the negative or decoder ground). Nigel See heading: 'Using and Connecting a larger Stay Alive Capacitor' This is about 2/3rds the way down on this web page for product image. However, there was a socket to fit a stay alive/capacitor. Just sayin' I saw one running at the last train show I attended. A 'Stay Alive' is basically a capacitor component. On a layout it can be a problem because of the run-away time. I do know that most DCC decoders may operate in analogue mode, some are able to 'manage' Stay Alive capacitors though not all can do both concurrently. Stay alive is a term seen many times in relation to DCC and the module seems to be an add on unit to a dcc decoder. If you wished to add a stay alive unit to Hornby's R8249 decoder, the steps would be similar The Zen SUPER high power stay alive has exceptional power storage. I've gone this far I might as well splash out 99p and see what the Lenz-recommended capacitor does. If you fit stay alives to DCC the decoder still determines the speed but on DC at best you would get full voltage and an uncontrolled runaway. LaisDcc Stay Alive Lite 2 $ 27. The cap' and circuit are a small complete unit that will fit in the cab of an 08 and are hard to see when when painted matt black. If there is restricted room tantalum capacitors will do it. These use much higher value super capacitors and née additional components to control them, no problem to fit it all in your tender. I have ordered a couple to test them out on some locos which tend to stall on some dead frogs. However it won't do it if the internal lights are on. 3 - If so, which stay alive capacitor should I use. If you're referring to the pads on the decoder, then the German manual (more up to date than the English), says about the MX638 "like MX634, but without connection for capacitor". Any of these should fit the same space as the DZ126, so if you really, really need a keep alive, maybe the best solution is to switch decoders. Posted July 18, 2024. Hello Fellow model railroaders. robwill84. You need those two to attach a two-wire stay alive unit, which can be either a commercial device, or a DIY one (minimum of charging resistor, discharge diode and capacitor, other components may be required depending on details). Still, this is enough to get over some of The more the better. We use various capacitors from different suppliers to make sure they fit the model without being visible. Strip A lot of people have asked how to fit stay alive's to a Hornby TTS decoder. This kit makes up a stay alive, or keep alive, unit that can be used on most DCC chips. Hi all, Quick question, that I am sure must have been asked before, but I cannot find an answer on rmWeb. Plucked up the courage to ****UPDATED PARTS LIST****Please not since making this video, certain part numbers have changed. Hello everybody, I have just bought a MX633 decoder to experiment with stay alive capacitors. It is unbelievable how it has improved ho and o. So, assuming each capacitor has the same value, two in series gives a total of half the individual values. Stay alive and removable bridges. I've done these installs in other decoders without the JST 2 pin plug but this is a first for me with a LS 5. These are super va A third 470uf capacitors seemed to fit nicely in this crevice. Now such a stay-alive is an interesting demonstration of what is possible. So here we go! I have been reading with an enormous amount of interest on the To save a fiddly job you can buy a DCC Concepts stay alive unit. Events calendar. 075J of energy giving 0. I'm using 4 Jenny shows you how to fit a solder-free stay alive mod to your Heljan Class 07 locomotive, to make it the most reliable model locomotive in your fleet. So a stay-alive capacitor will be almost always be fully charged and probably only takes a fraction of a second to charge up anyway. The kit used: Not sure what you mean by stay-alive decoder, a stay-alive is a combination of capacitors/resistors/diodes that connects to the decoder via the common positive and ground connections on them. Classified ads. In one tender loco I have managed to fit a larger capacitor (1000uf) than the supplied one from Zimo (470uf). Wheels, pickup and track are clean, but as it’s my first effort at building code 40 track some gaps and slight unevenness have crept in. trainnutt. However, the other terminal of the large capacitor can be used for the DC-negative as it shares a connection to the DC-negative on the diodes. This stay alive pack has the capability once fully charged to Messing around with a friend's GMD1. I have extensively searched the forum but couldn’t find a clear With KA's, we can use smaller capacitors allowing it to fit more locomotives while storing more energy than a Stay Alive device can do. At first I couldn't see anywhere that was large enough to fit I’m looking for help please. But not everyone uses DCC. The next issue was locating where to solder the wires. I can even fit two 4700uF on the diesel or electric locos. In that case, I just fit a cheap LaisDCC with a 4700uF capacitor. Unfortunately, since Thomas does not have sprung wheels, it tends to stall on insulated frog points while my Bachmann 56XX is fine, I'd like to fit the big DCC Concepts capacitor but it is too big. https://www. Loksound, Lokpilot and Train-o-matic work best with a 3 wire stay alive, Zimo or TTS Author Topic: Hi does anyone know how to fit a stay alive to a DZ123 decoder please (Read 1205 times) 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. No its not a question of whether this can be done it is a question of how. I was wondering if it was possible to make small supercapacitor based stay-alives. However they take up an extra function on ESU's decoder and A longer stay alive time would be nice, but not entirely necessary. Problem is the next 18 socket. I wish to fit a new loksound 5 micro decoder, 8 pin, to a Hornby J50. I have just purchased a Laisdcc 'Kung Fu' Stay Alive 871007 which I want to fit to my Bachmann 03. You will be able to leave a comment after signing in. Hornby. There are some fairly large solder pads to connect the stay alive to so it's easier than you might think if you are experienced with soldering, but as Hi, I’ve recently very easily fitted a couple of Train-O-Matic stay alive’s to Legomanbiffo v5 decoders, but how easy is it to fit a stay alive to the new Plux22 sound decoders that are in the new Bachmann class 47’s? And where would the QUOTE IMO have a different approach to stay-alive support, rather than use an add-on module for the stay-alive circuit, all but the smallest ZIMO decoders come with most of the components for a stay-alive circuit on the circuit board. Question is how similar to standard decoder is the tts chip and has anyone soldered a stay alive module to one. 3). The sound is great, but as I said in the post above, they work out at twice the price. 00 Add to cart; LaisDcc Stay Alive Pro 2 $ 27. Unread content. ( btw. 95) will accept a stay-alive (indeed it is packaged with a small stay-alive) but I was wondering if the following decoders would accept a stay-alive and if so, how easy they are to fit (I'm assuming that it is highly likely that some soldering to the decoder's motherboard is required). youtube. John C. Two Wire Or Three Wire Stay Alives? Lots of people arent sure what they need. This document show you how to fit a Zimo SC68 keep-alive into the factory sound fitted Class 03 shunter. I want to fit stay alive circuits to my old DC locos, DCC stay alive capacitors are polarity sensitive, but the wiring between the track and the motor on a DC loco have reversing voltage polarities depending upon which direction the loco is travelling. patreon. Prepare the CurrentKeeper for installation: Using wire cutters, trim the blue and black wires to about 3”. By HST43 November 30, 2023 in HM | DCC (HM7000) Share There was no way an HM7k 8 pin would fit. Pickup is not that reliable and I'd prefer to fit a "stay alive" to it as well. There is a note in the Lokprogrammer software that tells you to disable Aux6 when connecting a stay-alive directly to the chip. However, it happened to be the Zimo MS581N18, so all that had to be installed were the capacitors. I don't know if there is any established good practice for this using a fully analogue pathway. 1000uf 25v keep alive capacitor kit of components to make a basic stay alive unit for use with DCC operated locomotives. Doesn't happen every time but often enough that I can reproduce it in a couple of places on the layout. Now all I want is a space to fit a large stay alive capacitor!! Incidentally, I initially tried a DCC Concepts decoder with a stay alive capacitor fitted (without attempting to fit the cab!) just to try it out but when the loco did hesitate it lurched violently backwards an inch or so before running forwards again. Both @Nigelcliffe and @WIMorrison have amassed a huge amount of knowledge and experience and give a lot of their time to providing good, helpful and constructive advice to others on this forum and others. Content I posted in. 2. So I've spent several hours this morning studying how to make your own "Keep Alive" circuit for decoders. This is where 'stay alives' start to get complicated. Hi Steve Item 1 - Normally No, this decoder has no soldering pads for any USP products. Nigel Cliffe. Posted November 2, 2011. Gregd99. My question is, is it possible to add a capacitor t Has any one tried to make a custom keep alive capacitor circuit for an n scale loco using small tantalum capacitors. The Zimo MX617 has be superseded by the Zimo MN170. com/bePatron?u=15400635Donation Link. I wanted to fit a stay alive, but before getting the model, I expected the smaller Next 18 Zimo MS590N18 decoder to be fitted. This tutorial will cover the two main types of ‘Stay Alive’ capacitors and where they connect to the Hornby Fitting a Stay Alive Capacitor at Chadwick Model Railway. Both decoders come with wires to enable "easy fit" capacitors to them to allow some form of "stay alive" function to operate on track that is not clean. I have used a 1N4002 diode and 150 ohm Fitting a Stay Alive Capacitor at Chadwick Model Railway. The main problem you'll have is finding where to connect the wires. Anyone out there who can help? Hi Folks, I know that the 2-function DCC Concepts ZN6D (at £22. 00 Add to cart; So I would estimate the stay alive time is only about 200ms . 96RAF. It's also true that charge/discharge management of the capacitor will be required. Moderators; The red capacitor wire may be removed and discarded. Look no further than fitting your locomotive with a stay alive capacitor setup. me/ Stay alive capacitors should ideally be manganese dioxide electrolyte types as these require less voltage derating than the polymer type, the significance of which is explained This is Part 1 of an in-depth two-part series looking at home-made stay alive devices. It won't fit into the 'tanks' or under the coal. I've ordered one of the advertised 'Analogue stay alive' capacitor on an 8-pin blanking plug. my engine got about 2 feet before 1 of 4 cap blew and there was a pyrotechnic display. As it is a small loco it will not need a lot. It's been quite a while since I last posted a question. It should arrive today or tomorrow. The only soldering involved is to connect the blue and black wires of the capacitor to the extra blue and black wires coming from the chip. 8mm, this new, smaller component continues to provide a suitable power back-up to decoders I have posted on this before and been grateful for all advice offered. Note that this only works with ESU active capacitors that are wired to AUX9 or AUX7. I would definatley fit more lcos with the stay alive an excellent product very highly reccomended. I’m steadily working through my collection fitting stay alive capacitors - either by incorporating the PowerBank with Hornby TXS decoders or by adding a homemade stay alive to TTS decoders. Posts: 11 Seems that there is a MLCC (multi-layer This Class 59 has a ZIMO MX645R sound decoder with a Lais 860009 stay alive pack connected. However, if the OP wants to fit a stay-alive Derek (the OP) Something I'd like to do to all my loco's is add a driver (& passengers) where appropriate/possible. Not sure I want to illuminate the interior of a passenger car to show the capacitor in it. The ‘Stay Alive’ capacitor is electrically connected across the output of When fitting a stay-alive - one if the biggest dangers (as I see it now) is to go for 'The Best Bang for Your Buck' - in other words, the biggest stay-alive you can fit (in As described in the guide it's important to fit a diode and resistor to the positive side of the capacitor to prevent too rapid charging. The result was rather disappointing. it seemed wise to fit a stay alive, and i was wondering if i can put together my own stay alive using some capacitors etc. Just add the DCC Decoder Fitting Service to your basket (see below). At just 13mm x 12. 244") might fit and it does. Posted November 10, 2024. 063" x 0. \$\endgroup\$ – Are there any recomendations on here for the size of the capacitor. In this video, we look at making a stay alive/keep alive capacitor unit Fitting the Stay Alive Unit to the TTS Decoder In this final video, we look at adding the stay alive/keep alive unit that we made to Hornby’s TTS sound decoder. QUOTE (Tarka Steve @ 28 Dec 2015, 15:51) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Guys, 1 - Is it possible to fit stay alive to a Lenz standard decoder 10231-01. My followed content Blogs. 5 and 4. They are also good at identifying the question one may not have asked but gets to the root of the issue which helps both the OP Author Topic: Capacitors for DCC stay alive (Read 12320 times) 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. ) - Nigel 1 1 As to your suggestion that you would only allow 1 second, then explain to me why everyone is 1. I decided to fit a stay alive capacitor and also tidy up the installation as well. Can I add stay alive to my growing fleet of tts engines. 1A, equating to about 5mm of travel at a scale 5kmh in N. - I use a 25V capacitor rather than the more obvious 16V versions so there I've fitted a ZN8D decoder to a Hornby Thomas, plus the small stay alive capacitor. Do NOT connect the KA1/2 BLUE wire to the RED wire to the Capacitor. I didn't read any requirement to fit one. Crew; Posts So you either need less space for the same value capacitor, or you can fit a capacitor with twice as Hi guys in this video il show you the comparison between some of my locos using the different Lais Stay alives ive shown in most of my videos to date. I take it you have a commercial pack rather than home-made. A step-by-step guide to building and installing a stay alive LED lighting unit in a Hornby Mk2 coach. A stay-alive is simply an electrical component (capacitor) which stores energy that can be drawn upon if the loco momentarily loses connection with the track, like a back-up battery. If I can fit one in I may just switch to n scale. The Train-O-Matic Smart Power Pack was used with careful attention to the supplied DCC Concepts sell decoders with a stay alive capacitor that you would replace the current decoder in the 08. The final question is can I in fact fit stay alive to an R8215 decoder or were referring to other Hornby decoders? Our stay-alive capacitors are easy to fit and come in a range of sizes to suit most loco types. Hello everybody, I do not think there's any secret regarding making a decent DIY stay-alive. some minimum number of super-caps are required to have a sufficiently high voltage to drive the motor. This sounds like the answer to problems with locos stopping on Hornby points and/or not too clean track. This was prompted by me buying my 3-y-o grandson a 'Percy' 0-4 This question relates specifically to the Zimo MX658N18 sound chip, and whether anyone has managed to fit stay alive when the model PCB does not include common Also just got a V5 and that now comes with flighing leads This FAQ has been written as a result of a ‘forum member’ request. A stay-alive will store and then provide your model with just enough power to see it over a turnout's unpowered frog , but it is Well, following the sterling advice and guidance given in this thread, I purchased a Zimo MX617 with a Lais KingFu stay-alive pre-soldered by Digitrains. However, if you're willing to abandon the DZ126, the ESU LokPilot V. If you do, the KA1/2 will only feed the Microprocessor and the sound portion of the Tsunami, while the sound will go on for 30 or so seconds, there will NOT be any stay alive to the Motor, causing it to stall/stop, immediately the loco experiences a power interruption (dirty track), explained in the DCC Stay Alive Capacitors. For this I used a Gaugemaster 8 pin decoder, and a Lais DCC high power stay a In a previous thread, I had discussed my thoughts on fabricating a small stay-alive unit using super-capacitors. Buying a 'Stay Alive' as a ready made commercial product is a very expensive way of obtaining stay alive components. I agree wholeheartedy about your comments regarding the pickups. As you might guess, that was a year ago, before the You won't get any "stay alive" capacity from any single capacitor that will physically fit that little guy. 00 Add to cart; LaisDcc Stay Alive Lite 3 $ 27. Our system will send you an email with details of how to post your locomotive to us. which won't even come close to fitting. For me, I only have one such loco and that is the late model Hornby 61xx. Although just how the capacitors fit isn’t shown as they were Just read an article in Sept Hornby mag where there is mention of fitting a stay alive capacitor to an engine with a DCC chip to get reliable running on dead and dirty This seems like a brilliant idea can you fit them on DC engines and if so where do you get them and are they difficult to fit. If you add the Stay Alive Capacitor in a permanently coupled wagon it maybe worth while adding power pickup from that wagon's wheels as well Regards Hi folks, Thought I'd document the fitting of a sound decoder, small stay-alive capacitor and sugar cube speaker into the body of a Bachmann 9F. Many Tsunamis have a capacitor already attached. You A stay-alive capacitor (also known as a keep-alive) is a component that can be fitted to DCC model locomotives to temporarily maintain power to its electronics and motor should the main source of power be interrupted due to dirty rails or insulated frogs. Note also, that a 'stay alive' capacitor should also include a resistor and diode in parallel (the parallel diode / resistor goes in series with the capacitor) At £11 it won't break the Bank if it goes wrong, after all it's not like trying to retro-fit a 'Stay Alive' to a £80 Loksound. com site but it only shows 3. I read with great interest the review in the latest Hornby Magazine (issue 51 Pg 81) of a DCC decoder with a 'stay alive' capacitor attached. All activity. Stay-alive is quite straight-forward too, though there are not any dedicated solder pads for common positive and ground, there are exposed PCB vias that can be soldered to. You only have to connect the capacitor to solder pads or (in the larger decoders) to screw terminals. Yes the energy stored in a specific flywheel is proportional to the square of the angular velocity 1, with LokSound decoders have been rapidly gaining popularity and a lot of model railroaders seem to be increasingly interested in installing stay alive devices alo When the rail voltage disappears, this diode becomes forward-biased and the capacitor discharges and supplies power to the decoder. Im looking to use Zimo on my 4mm layout, but can someon Is it possible to fit a stay alive to the Hornby sentinel that's fitted with the Hornby 4 pin decoder? My limited understanding is that the capacitors need to be rated higher than any expected voltage, so the 16 volt stated in the article may be too low. I read somewhere that its not recommended, but can someone maybe explain WHY? i really appreciate any responses, Thank you, ColinB. 5mm x 6. I had read that analog conversion could be a factor, so I have that off. I get m So here is how I fitted high capacity stay alive to my tiny(!) oo gauge Hornby 48ds Ruston. xqtf fete lfgwvv trcxb jmmaw ftetpoy yjj wtwbir jpibt bzh