# Trouble with my point to point layout



## Sedda (Oct 19, 2009)

On a previous thread I had great help in fixing up my Bachmann open street car and ended up installing a USA motor block and the trolley works great so thanks for that. 

I'm now having trouble with the point to point layout. The trolley gets to the end of the line and then doesn't start going the other way without a little persuasion. The same at the other end. I've tried my 1 amp LGB controller (that I use for my train layout) as well as the initial no-name controller I had and the same thing happens. I'm using an Aristo auto reversing unit. 


Does the auto reversing unit or the trolley need time to warm up? I find that once it's been going for a while (quite a while sometimes) then it works fine. Do I maybe need something stronger than 1 amp? I really don't want to spend too much on the power/controller though. (The missus is getting fed up with the money I'm spending...lol).


----------



## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Dirty contacts? Dirty track? Dirty Jointers? If it makes it from one end to the other I would say something is worng in the Trolly it's slef. Mabye the track or wheels need cleaning. Or maybe the contacts that take the power from the wheels to the motor are dirty or loose wire. I am guessing but that is where I would look


----------



## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Some of these auto-reversing units have a delay time after stopping and before reversing the train... could it be that about the time you nudge it to make it go the timer has completed and it has started on its own anyway? (I am just asking, since I really don't know much of nothing about auto-reversing units at all.)


----------



## hawkfanjohn (Nov 17, 2009)

talked to a fellow tonight with a point-to-point~ said his wasn't working properly until he removed all the ballast from track. 

Balast had enough iron oxide in to mess it up! He removed balast and his piont to point worked as advertised!


----------



## Sedda (Oct 19, 2009)

The time delay is not the problem. I have found that when it's working okay the aristo reversing unit makes a humming noise before it clicks and reverses polarity (or whatever it does - the click and hum could be the other way around) but when it's not working properly I only here a little click and no hum.


----------



## JPCaputo (Jul 26, 2009)

I has the same problem with the same unit running slow speed. 

The aristo uses PWM for a soft start that does the humm for a second or so. (nice for a high speed point to point to not spin the wheels at startup) 

The way i cured the stalling on starts is, I eliminated the power transistor, and bypassed it. so that it puts full voltage straight to the track, without the PWM soft start. 

I'll open up my controller and post / send you pics of the mod on the board if you'd like them.


----------



## Sedda (Oct 19, 2009)

JPCaputo, I don't really want a fast start but it looks like it may be the only way around it. Yes, please post pics because I wouldn't know where to start. Thanks.


----------



## Del Tapparo (Jan 4, 2008)

You probably don't want to convert to battery power, but if you did, you could use the "Enhanced Critter Control". No more contact problems.


----------



## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

My Aristo reverser has been working for 6 years. I added a 15uf non-polarized capacitor to the output and this reduces the PWM pulses a lot.


----------



## JPCaputo (Jul 26, 2009)

Here are pics of what i did.

Here is a pic of the controller i made. Functional but have not added fancy knobs, and labeling. I hot-wired it to do a manual override for the direction and made the delay off the board as well. 

controller lr

Top of the board, the transistor (mosfet) removed. Note the 3 holes above the box where the transistor went into. i circled it in red.


Top of board 


Here is the bottom of the board, with the bypass of the transistor in the red box, on the left side. It is just the 2 pads merged. 


Bottom of board 



On another note, the 1 amp controller has current limiting built in (kind of a soft start) so it should work fine with this mod.


PS, this board needs ~5 Volts to at least run. more is better. For some engines this is a fairly good clip.


----------



## Sedda (Oct 19, 2009)

Thanks for that JPCaputo. I'll have a look on the weekend and see if I can do something like that.


----------



## Sedda (Oct 19, 2009)

Posted By Dan Pierce on 13 Dec 2009 09:46 AM 
My Aristo reverser has been working for 6 years. I added a 15uf non-polarized capacitor to the output and this reduces the PWM pulses a lot. 
I don't know what that capacitor is or how to connect it. Do you have any diagrams or something? That would really help. Thanks.


----------



## Dan Pierce (Jan 2, 2008)

No diagrams, a capacitor has 2 leads and they are tied to the 2 power leads between the reversing unit and track. 
Essentially the capacitor has 1 lead to each rail.


----------

