The weekends job continued on the
Sabbath (I can't remember seeing anything about model railways in teh bible, so it must be OK). I did a final check on one of the sections just to make sure if I had
gaped everything before the paint went on. Everything checked out except one of the brass sleepers between modules, and it was not a full short, just a partial one(
ie the meter doesn't flick all the way over). I managed to isolate the piece of track. still there. I re cut the slit in the middle of the brass sleeper. Shorts still there, but a bit less. widen the gaps in all the PCB sleepers. short almost
gone but I'm still getting a tweak in the needle. OK, cut a bigger gap out of the brass bar.
Needle still giving a tiny tweak. Bugger
At this point I decided to connect up the
DCC box, and check out if there actually is a short, or is it just my imagination.
OK, so it makes a funny sound when I short it out no purpose,. Now connect it to the track and.....its fine.
Must be time for a beer. And maybe I should consider investing in a new meter?
'It must be OK, its official and everything!'
2 comments:
Love the Avo Minor meter..it would be worth a bit now on TradeMe to a collector of old electrical items!
What ohm range did you have the meter on? If on "high ohms", I would expect there to be leakage (thousands of ohms) if there were a lot of PCB sleepers (with gaps) used. This would be the leakage across the cut gap in the PCB insulating material (usually a phenolic or bakelite compound)
However, the "Low ohms" range should show an open circuit or infinite ohms.
See? It wasnt a cheap birthday present after all....
"Soaksi" (Spanish): "Yes Sir, you are definitely wet..."
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