Flickering lights: Tomix JR E233 - model no. 92336

[wobblybob]

First posting: apologies if this has been addressed before. I did a search but was unable to find anything.

 

I am working on analogue DC and recently bought the Tomix JR E233 3-car EMU set - model no. 92336. It is a superb model and a really smooth runner. My problem is that the head, tail and destination lights, which all appear to be part of a single light unit at the top of the driving cab windscreen, constantly flicker. Even when a driving trailer car is placed on the track without the motorised centre car, and power is applied, light is sometimes on - sometimes off.

 

I have thoroughly cleaned the track and the wheels of all the cars, but the flickering remains. I do not believe it is a track issue as the motorised centre car runs very smoothly even at the slowest crawl, and my other Tomix unit does not flicker.

 

I notice the bogies of the driving trailer cars have a metal inner frame, which appears to provide the means of pick-up from the metal wheels. This is quite different from the copper (copper alloy?) pick-ups on the motorised car. Has this current collection system a reputation for problems.

 

Any diagnoses and suggestions for solutions would be most welcome. Thanks

 

Bob

[bill937ca]

Are you using a Tomix power pack?

[keitaro]

i get this some times on some of my passenger sets like the 24 - 24 series one out a while ago.

 

It wasfine till i placed couplers on it.

 

I found that it's the pickup causing it, make sure the springs are fine and that the metal strip that hits the sheels is not bent on one.

[wobblybob]

Are you using a Tomix power pack?

 

I am using a Kato 22-014 power pack.

[wobblybob]

Thanks for the comments and feedback. The lighting seems to be settling down now. Maybe just a running-in issue.

[cteno4]

wasnt someone (ken maybe?) working on a little capacitor circuit to help with flickering lights?

 

jeff

[The_Ghan]

There was a discussion on flickering here. 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

yep it was ken, heres the page on his site

 

http://sumidacrossing.org/ModelTrains/ModelTrainDCC/CarInteriorLighting/index.html

 

perhaps he will update us on his efforts. also issue is with doing this for variable dc.

 

jeff

[KenS]

No update to make, I got distracted and haven't got back to working on the lighting beyond what's on my Car Light Board page (the third page in that section, describing work from last summer).  Also, Kato's new interior lighting kits, at least in the newer trains they're designed for, have much less flicker than the older ones (I still have several trains worth of the old ones to de-flickerize, so I still plan to get back to my circuit eventually).  Going forward I'll be buying their new kits exclusively, even at a slightly higher cost.

 

On DC, the LEDs would need more voltage to light in my circuit, as you lose 1V in the rectifier and (with Kato) about another 0.75V in the resistor.  That's enough to be a significant nuisance, and since the capacitor won't charge above that voltage, the "ride through" time would be much shorter than it would be in DCC with a 12V track supply. However, I didn't play with this on DC so I don't know how much effect those factors have.

 

The same basic circuit should work for Tomix if you can get it between the track power and the lightboard there (it's designed to take DC or AC and convert it to DC, charging a capacitor that will discharge into the lightboard when track power drops below the capacitor level). But I haven't tried it with anything other than Kato, and there are potential issues if power draw was much higher (Kato uses SMD LEDs that draw ~5 mA, where standard LEDs draw 20 mA and bulbs draw 60 mA; it probably wouldn't work with bulbs without some alteration and the benefit even on standard LEDs would be much reduced by the higher current draw from those).

[cteno4]

Ken

 

Just wanted to say thanks for your write ups on your blog on these circuits. It's help break loose the cobwebs in my brain on these circuits!  Much appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff