The Fun With DCC

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing goes right.  Or you have a project you are working on and one glitch leads to another.  You end up spending som much time trying to take the easy way out, you end up spending more time than what you would have done if you had done it right in the first place.

What I am talking about here is my test track.  I cheaped out on the wiring and used 20 gauge wires.  This worked well until I put a locomotive on it that was equipped with a QSI decoder.  It programmed well but then when I flipped the switch to have the test track get mainline power, the locomotive did not respond.  Frustration sets in.

So I go get my handy voltage detector and start testing everything.  Well this story is not over.  I replaced all the wiring  except for the last foot, with 16 gauge stranded.  This did the trick in that all my locomotives worked again, except this one with the QSI decoder.  It is not the locomotive as it runs perfectly on the test track.  So  the problem has to be the last couple of feet of  20 – 22 gauge wire.   So next weekend I plan to take out this wire and solder the 16 gauge wire to the track.  I hope it works.

I knew that QSI locomotives drew some power, but I never ran into this problem before as the rest of my layout is wired with 14 gauge stranded bus and and 18 gauge drops.  You live and learn and waste time in the process.  I will let you know how it goes once I solder the 16 gauge to the track.