Oh dear ..... an electrofrog conundrum

[Tricky Dicky]

https://dccwiki.com/PECO_Unifrog#:~:tex ... %20routing.

Thanks for the link Ian

Richard

[Bandit Mick]

Finished work earlier than expected so looked at my points problem again - please see earlier posts. As before, the point in my fiddle yard is fine - even my 0-4-0 peckett crawls through at speed step 3 when the point is set either way. However on the scenic section both my peckett and pannier tank stop on the frog when the Two pointS are set on the curve - they will both crawl through when the points are on the straight. All 3 points are brand new and unmolested and no scenic work ie rail painting has been done. Once pushed just past the frogs both locos move again. I have relayed both points, checked all connections and even replaced the metal rail joiners. When I run both locos on my shed layout which uses insulfrog points with rail clips both locos will go through at a crawl with absolutely no hesitation. The points are laid absolutely flat and are clean. The only difference is that the 2 points on the scenic section are controlled by wire in tube - I’ve also checked these and they are loose without any upward pressure on the points. I’ve checked underneath both points and no wireS are loose or missing. What can be wrong? Any suggestions please but I expect everyone will be as perplexed as me. If I have no joy by the weekend I intend to change back to insulfrog - I should not really have changed to live frog I suppose as I’ve never had a problem with any Insulfrog points - they have always worked well immediately.
Ps none of my track or points are secured to the baseboard yet - they are joust held with drawing pins in the middle of sleepers.

[teedoubleudee]

Is there power to the frog in both positions?

[Bandit Mick]

I assume so because locos run perfectly when the point is set straight on but they stall when the point is set to the curve. When set to the curve the locos run neither forwards or backwards through the frog. However the fiddle yard point is perfect in any direction. I wonder if pinning the points down might make a difference. I wanted to avoid this until all track was thoroughly tested.

[teedoubleudee]

Thats why I said in both postions. Could be the frog is dead when point set to curve

[Bandit Mick]

Thanks - but it seems strange that both points show the same problem. Interestingly, whenever I attend an exhibition it always seems that any running problems are based around points. Bl***y things!

[teedoubleudee]

Shroomy asked you earlier what were you using to feed the frogs eg is it a switch on the point motor or one of those auto switch electronic gizmos. The idea of electrofrog points is you feed the frog with one side of the track power according to the direction that the turnout is pointing so providing an almost continous run. A meter is a great help here if you have one

[Brian]

See post #6 No switching just switch rail making contact onto stock rail.

Assuming there is no short circuit occurring and IRJs are fitted to the points Vee rail ends, then the problem can only really be one of two things IMO...Both of which I've already covered!

A) The switch rail is not making good contact onto the stock rail when the two are closed together.

B) The turn out direction closure rails gap is not linked across underneath.

A multimeter would prove both!

[shroomy]

The reason I asked if they were powered I had exactly the same problem with dcc80. Auto frogs some points worked some didn’t
They turned out to be failing auto frog switches
So I replaced all with tam valley auto frogs now everything runs fine
After taking out the dcc 80 quite a few were showing signs of over heating

[Bandit Mick]

Being unable to solve my electrofrog points problem I invested in 2 insulfrog points today. I wired them up, added some very unobtrusive point clips (expensive bits of wire) and fired up my micro layout. All my locos including my peckett (speed step 2) crawled over the points - no stuttering and no hesitation. I’ll keep the electrofrog points in the hope that one day I might be able to solve the problem of why locos refused to run over them when the point was set to the curve. Many thanks to all those who tried to help me via the forum.