John C. (or ANYONE who knows!!), I dug this up, because I'm working on something similar.... I just put an AMD4 decoder from TCS, in my old Atlas SD35. It runs 20x smoother now, but like most N scale, the tiniest spec or bump in the track, and it stalls!! Coming from HO, and being spoiled with TCS Keep-Alive letting me run over a FOOT of dead track without even a light flickering, I wanted to try SOMETHING!! :O I just got 3 of the 220uF, 16v Tants, that you mentioned often, from Digikey. Stupid question first! The side with the white stripe - positive or negative??? I plan on running two in parallel. Is 440uF enough? Should I try to get all 3 hooked up?? Help!
The stripe end USUALLY is positive, but you really need to look at the spec sheet for the particular cap that you ordered to make absolutely sure. The spec sheet is linked by Digikey - just enter the part number, and then when the order information comes up, you'll see a link for the spec sheet. 440uf should be plenty for any sort of "normal" electrical interruption; I use two in parallel for my steam locos equipped with sound decoders and that seems to do the job nicely. John C.
Thanks John! I'll check out the data sheet. Worth noting, for anyone - ANY TCS decoder, made after Jan. 2012, is fully Keep-Alive ready! My AMD4 came with 2 pads, marked (+) and (-) specifically for soldering a Cap to. Cheers!!
