Tomix Conducting Couplers - What's your experience and opinion?

[lukewang01]

Please share your experience and opinion on Tomix conducting couplers.

I'm have problems with them because the light doesn't work well out of the box and most the time these couplers are the culprit. I'll post the details later after gathering some photos. 

[cteno4]

Luke,

 

ive had no issues at all with the Tomix power couplers, I got them as soon as they came out on shinkensens and have kept buying Tomix versions of trains that sport them. I love them as they really run great on our club layout that can get a lot of muck built up with running it a few days straight at shows. Smooth and if you have lights no flicker!

 

exactly what issues are you having?

 

jeff

[lukewang01]

Jeff,

 

I got to lay down the background first. I bought Tomix E001 Last November and Mizukaze this January both from RG. The E001 out of the box 5 out of the 10 cars doesn't light up. And Mizukaze have some cars flickering. I'm not sure if that's because those two sets were sitting in Kobe for too long and some moisture might have found a way in.

 

Now onto the topic of couplers. I took those cars from E001 apart and use fine sandpaper (#2500) to sand the copper wires on the coupler. Most cars were fixed this way and few I worked on bogie as well. That seems to fix the contact problem. I haven't completed the first round on Mizukaze yet, and I had some discussion on this topic in discord earlier.

 

Luke

[katoftw]

Never had an issue with the power couplers. I think you have some connectivity issues in you cab cars in regards to the electricals.

[lukewang01]

Yeah, no one ever complained on those problems. The connectivity issue is mostly on those couplers. The situation improves the most after some slight sanding amongst other measures. 

[cteno4]

Luke,

 

never had an experience like that and I have both those models and at least a dozen other Tomix power coupler models famed no issues. Not heard of others having issues like that either.

 

sounds like you have found a fix for your issue.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

In my opinion, the issue lies with the lights and perhaps the connection to them, rather than the couplers. The couplers are just to allow all wheel pick-up and avoid flickering/non-consistent motor output. I know you did some tests on them and found they faulty, but I cannot see how they would be responsible for individual car failures.

RG-R supposedly test their sets before shipping them overseas. Masaharu-san would have noticed the issue. As I said on discord, I wonder if something didn't get dislodged in transport. Likelihood is low to have issues on two different sets, but who knows. Same with manufacturing defaults. Possible but unlikely.

Did you try unbuilding/rebuilding one car without sanding the couplers first?

Maybe you could run some tests on your Mizukaze, full consist and single-car running, and make a few video so we can see how things look.

[lukewang01]

I haven't tried just rebuilding the cars. I noticed a significant drop in resistance before and after the sanding, so that's why it leads to my conclusion. I'll shoot some videos to demonstrate that, then I'll try if only rebuilding the cars will help.

[lukewang01]

 

 

Looking at my record. Car No. 3,5,6,7,8 had problems and I've fixed all but No.8. It's not that obvious on the video, but you can see at the upper right corner, the light is not as stable as other cars.  

 

I know carpet is an unfavorable platform for models, that's why I clean them frequently and my focus is on B-trains rather than regular sets. 

[cteno4]

Yeah my guess would be like disturbman in that something is loose with the lighting strips. But if sanding the connections lowered resistance thru the cars, maybe something there,

 

How did you measure the resistance change thru the cars?

 

did you try reordering the cars at all to see what mixing up the couplers does with car 8?

 

also I would try just opening up car 8 and reseating all the lighting connections to give that a whirl. I have had all sorts of stuff get knocked loose in shipping inside well packed boxes even.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

I would say. The more the box is well packed, tight in a package, the most likely that any shock will be translated directly to the train. It's better if the packaging items can absorb some of the shocks. The formula is "nicely packed, but not too tight."

Edited February 27, 2021 by disturbman

[lukewang01]

Not exactly thru cars, but within the one car itself. Cars are taken apart till this.

 

Then I will place the truck(or frame?) onto the track and measure the resistance between track and the top of coupler. I will also gently press down the frame a little to simulate the weight of the body. But usually this is done after processing the frame because I will only take apart those cars that are having problems. After sanding, I'll use the diode function on the multimeter(Hearing the beep is easier than reading while holding stuff) to check the coupler between the contact to the body/bogie and the end to make sure current can flow between cars.

[lukewang01]

11 minutes ago, disturbman said:

I would say. The more the box is well packed, thigh in a package, the most likely that any shock will be translated directly to the train. It's good for the packaging items inside the package can absorb some of the shocks. The formula is "nicely packed, but not too tightly."

Oh yeah, there's also a dent on the outer box which I'm not sure how it got there. I feel like RG's packing is at the sweet spot of neither too tight nor too loose. But cleaning up packing peanuts could be a mess. 

Edited February 27, 2021 by lukewang01

[cteno4]

Ouch, Rokko is very good at packaging. That’s a good little dent with their packaging so I expect the box took some sharp g force at some time in shipping. 
 

There is that certain level of padding to spread the energy out to a less abrupt shock, but not too soft to allow easier crushing which can also occur. I’ve always liked HS’s boxes that are double layer corrugated cardboard, hard to breach those but a few have had crushed corners or holes punched in, but I’ve been super lucky over the years of nothing damaged beyond repair shipped from japan.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Seeing how things are constructed, one possibility for the issue could be the contact zone between the coupler and the metal strip. Particularly the contact between those little "inverted Vs" and the metal strip. That could explain why the light still flickers with the all-wheel pickup.

I'm surprised those strips are not made of copper.

Edited February 27, 2021 by disturbman

[lukewang01]

That would be my guess, but those strips seems to be fine. I'm not a fan of those small contact areas such as between the spring on the bogie and the coupler, and also the tip you mentioned as well. They can jack up the resistance easily if coupler were to go bad. I don't have much hope in just rebuilding car 8, but I'll give it a shot. I'll do some measurements before and after.

[cteno4]

Rebuilding would be a good control! I guess it could also just be the truck to car pickups having issues.

 

jeff

[lukewang01]

https://youtu.be/MIcu254MCUo

Pardon me for that mixed consist, I'm also testing E001 again to see which cars have contact problem again.

I've worked on Car 8 only with IPA, there are some improvements, it's now barely noticeable on camera(I don't know if it's due to the difference in environment lighting). I could buy some new couplers and swap them out all together and see how long they will last, it will be a good control group.  

[Kamome]

Thought this video would be of interest for an idea for non tomix powered couplers. 

 

 

[cteno4]

Nice use of the metallic tape. Wonder if sakatsu’s will take this over from Kobaru. 
 

There were some folks that did these but had them on the trucks on either side of the coupler and wire just wired into the truck contact strips.
 

I still want to try this in the diaphragm area with a little block of styrene a little smaller than the diaphragm interior and 2 small 2mm magnets sunk into the styrene, vertically stacked and wires then going into the car with limiter on the wires so the block can only extend out from the car like 3mm for the max corner separation. I think it might be cool to give a solid diaphragm look as well and they should self couple and uncouple as you couple/uncouple the truck couplers. Wire can pressure fit between the magnet in the styrene in the hole the magnet pushes into. Interior wire can jsut slip under the connector strips or be taped down to them.

 

cheers

 

jeff