have just spent 3 days locating a short.
my layout started small and has grown over the years to what would now be classed as medium to large. 2 levels area about 20 x 10 with a 10 x 10 transition area.
as I operate alone I didn`t worry about isolating sections [ blocking ] because if a train shorted out the whole layout it wouldn`t effect anyone but myself.
over the last week I have been working on building and installing a couple of bridges and when finished thought I would see how a train looked going over them.
fired up the DCC only to hear those dreaded 5 beeps indicating a short.
as I had been working on the bridges I naturally thought I must have done something at that part of the layout to cause a short
to cut a long story short [pun] 3 days later I discovered the cause of the problem at the entry to my staging loop nowhere near the bridges I had been working on
the problem was a solder joint had given way on a handbuilt turnout and the rail had moved slightly to cross a gap in the pcb tie and cause the problem.
to locate the short I had to cut the bus wires to finally isolate the area containing the turnout.
DEDUCTIONS
1 block the layout so areas can be turned off to more easily isolate problems
2 make sure solder joints are good. my problem was trying to make them look better by not having too much solder
hope my experience will save someone from making the same mistakes
my layout started small and has grown over the years to what would now be classed as medium to large. 2 levels area about 20 x 10 with a 10 x 10 transition area.
as I operate alone I didn`t worry about isolating sections [ blocking ] because if a train shorted out the whole layout it wouldn`t effect anyone but myself.
over the last week I have been working on building and installing a couple of bridges and when finished thought I would see how a train looked going over them.
fired up the DCC only to hear those dreaded 5 beeps indicating a short.
as I had been working on the bridges I naturally thought I must have done something at that part of the layout to cause a short
to cut a long story short [pun] 3 days later I discovered the cause of the problem at the entry to my staging loop nowhere near the bridges I had been working on
the problem was a solder joint had given way on a handbuilt turnout and the rail had moved slightly to cross a gap in the pcb tie and cause the problem.
to locate the short I had to cut the bus wires to finally isolate the area containing the turnout.
DEDUCTIONS
1 block the layout so areas can be turned off to more easily isolate problems
2 make sure solder joints are good. my problem was trying to make them look better by not having too much solder
hope my experience will save someone from making the same mistakes
