Chattering Cobalts

Discussions of the prototypes and how to model them. Show us how you do it.
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steve howe
Posts: 911
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:16 pm

Chattering Cobalts

Postby steve howe » Wed Jan 12, 2022 11:54 pm

Has anyone else experienced Cobalt (analogue) point motors starting to 'tick' or 'chatter'? we've had a couple on our Club layout which randomly start nattering away when the power is turned on irrespective of whether they are in use or not. They are not physically moving, just nattering. Anyone know the cause of this and should we be concerned?

Steve

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Jol Wilkinson
Posts: 1113
Joined: Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:39 pm

Re: Chattering Cobalts

Postby Jol Wilkinson » Thu Jan 13, 2022 7:29 am

Steve,

it is the gears slipping. The motor is powered continually, as are Tortoise point motors.

I had this when I used Cobalts on the extended section of London Road, usually one click at the end of travel. The earliest versions could apparently suffer from this and I found one way to fix it was to reduce the input voltage to about 9v or less.

DCC Concepts provide a "Lifetime Guarantee" so you could send them back. Richard at DCC was very helpful when I first encountered the problem and explained that the design was to be improved. It was apparently owing to the two part case being insufficiently rigid, allowing the gears to slip out of mesh.I still have a couple of the early ones that I replaced when they clicked even at 9v, which I shall return for replacement as I am slowly building a new bit of London Road.

Jol

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steve howe
Posts: 911
Joined: Sun Feb 01, 2009 10:16 pm

Re: Chattering Cobalts

Postby steve howe » Thu Jan 13, 2022 10:33 am

Thanks Jol, that may well answer the problem as these motors were bought as a batch by the Club several years ago. Annoyingly the one which is currently trouble is right next to a baseboard member and really fiddly to get at! :roll:

such is life,

Steve


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