Is This Plug-And-Play Stay-Alive The Future? 

I have a Bachmann HO Thomas that I put a decoder with a stay alive in. It'll run for 15 seconds after I turn the power off.

Informative vid, Jen. Happy New Year to you and Zoe.

When I got my first Zen decoder with a separate stay alive, I thought, why don't they add plugs for them? And how much energy do they store? Anyway, very well demonstrated, even in that little pug. Wish I had such steady hands as you! Happy new year and stay safe.

Hi Jenny and Happy New Year to you both. I really like the Zen decoders and now its a plug not solder Stay Alive its a game changer for me as with 2 cataracts soldering small items can be an issue. I applaud DCC Concepts for looking to go Plug & Play and their Ground Signals are the same nd in fact I would say idiot proof as I managed to get mine to work fist time. All the best for 2021................Cheers Kev

Happy New Year Jen! I have just installed a Zen Black plus the largest Zen Blue Stay Alive in a 1980s/90s Dapol 2p with tender drive, I emailed Dcc Concepts about the 3 pin plug on the decoder but only 2 wires on the stay alive and they kindly informed me that I could hard wire it using just the blue and black wires.all this I managed to slip inside the boiler and thin wires extended to the tender and she works a treat! Cheers from Christchurch New Zealand.

Very interesting. Adding stay alive capacitors can really make a huge difference to slow speed performance : the tendency for the models to stall being one of the most irritating features of model railway operation, and stalling is a major issue for any sort of automation, which is why I am especially keen on them. I anticipate that no-solder stay alives will significantly increase the popularity of this method of improving the running of trains. I fit stay-alives to the models in my N gauge layout where space is even more restricted than in the L&Y Pug shown here. Black tack and Kapton tape are very useful accessories: the Black tack for keeping components and wires in place so that the space can be optimised and the Kapton tape (thin, electrically insulating tape) for allowing electrical components to be in close contact with metal things without shorting. I use Zimo products on my layout; they require soldering, but do allow maximum flexibility with capacitor use as one can supply one's own (which can also be more cost effective, especially if one buys from an electronic component reseller in bulk as I do). In the smaller decoders (suitable for N gauge and smaller 00 gauge models; the 6 pin types), the system is quite similar to this except that soldering is required, with a decoder, a power management board (SACC16) and then separate capacitors, but in the latest generation of larger decoders (8 pin, 21 pin and PLUX22) the power management board is built into the decoder, meaning that all that is needed in addition to the decoder is the bank of capacitors itself. One nice thing that the Zimo chips do that I am not sure whether other brands do is automatically make sure that the train will not stop on a dead spot; if you bring the train to a controlled stop on a place that just happens to be a dead spot, then the capacitors may well have lost their charge powering the decoder and any lights before you come to start it again. What would be very interesting is to know the voltage output from these DCC Concepts power management boards. You are getting very high levels of capacitance from even a single capacitor here (I wouldn't be worrying about only being able to fit the single capacitor into the Pug - 2-3 seconds run-on as shown is more than enough to cope with all but the most extreme contact problems, and is more than the amount that I get in my N gauge models that has proven more than sufficient to make running flawless save in the case of some electrical failure to the track), suggesting that a low voltage super capacitor is being used, which might explain why the power management boards on these chips are as large as they are. The Zimo system to which I refer above uses 16v capacitors, but smaller capacitors can hold more of a charge at a lower voltage, so with a voltage regulator system in the power management boards and the use of supercapacitors as I suspect is the case here, a very large amount of capacitance can fit into a small space. Doing this does mean that there is a small possibility that the capacitors might explode if the power management board goes wrong and sends track voltage to the capacitors, but this is quite unlikely unless the design is flawed. There can be such a thing as too much capacitance (imagine a power failure on your layout just as you were bringing a train to a halt; with no power to send commands to tell the locomotive to stop, it might run on until the capacitors run out, at worst, falling off the end of a board or colliding with something at speed, causing damage), and the amount of run-on time shown by the class 25 is probably very considerably more than is needed to improve reliability. I would suspect that the very largest of these stay alive power packs is really better suited either for power hungry white metal kit built locomotives or, more probably, 0 gauge locomotives. In any event, it is very good to see new developments that make stay-alive capacitors more accessible. As I believe I may have mentioned before, I approve of stay-alives. Happy new year!

I love capacitors. Soldering them onto your locos is a completely different matter. Have a GREAT New Year Jenn!

They look very useful, hopefully in time they will be able to integrate the control PCB with the decoder to save space and maybe even make an all in one stay alive decoder. Happy new year Jenny & Zoe.

This is amazing, everything is getting so small. its great news for n gauge.

I can see a good use for the largest stay alive in an O gauge locomotive such as the Dapol 08 shunter or the Dapol O gauge Sentinel locomotive if it would be compatible with those type shunters. Happy New Year Jenny & Zoe. 🥂🎉

Happy New Year both :)

Good show. Thank you. I was thinking that even though the connectors are small, they still are very large when trying to cram them in the cockpit or under the hood or in the boiler of a small 2- or 3-axle shunter. I wonder, whether the manufacturer is going to supply these also without the connectors. Then it would be easier to also cut the total size down by cutting off the extra lengths of the wires.

Another excellent review. For the Pug, the Train-O-Matic power pack appears to run longer off the rails than the smallest Zen one but both are a struggle to fit in that cab!

Interesting stuff Jenny. These look like decent products and it was nice to hear them described without constant "errs" and "uhms" in the commentary. Either you work very well from a carefully-learnt script, or you're just a fluent, competent speaker. I suspect the latter.😁 One slight criticis; it might have been helpful to show the locos negotiating some pointwork, particularly insulfrog, after the stay-alives were fitted and, maybe 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 too. It seems it would make sense, especially with the variety pack, to fit the largest capacitor block possible to each loco, keeping the smaller/smallest ones for when space is more limited. Having the extra power is an advantage but probably more important to get a deent fit. Happy New Year to you and Thanks for an interesting review.👍👌😁

Hi Jennifer, a very interesting and useful video, I have been making my own keep-alive units using a diagram on one of DCC Concepts data sheets, these use 6 x 1 Farad super capacitors which are very small but still need a fair amount of space to fit in a loco, as I have mostly steam loco's I have room in the loco boiler area to fit them. I do use rather a lot of DCC Concepts equipment as I have found it to be reasonably priced and definitely "does what it says on the tin", I will have to have a look on their website at these units.

Given the use of the Pug maybe a semi permanently coupled shunters truck or brake van would be the solution. That would enable you to fit the biggest version without filling the cab? Maybe it would even be possible to set up the plugs and sockets so you could unplug the van if you need to run the loco or the van separately?

Would have never guessed capacitors were so useful. Fit them on grannies wheel chair to give an extra few miles.

Another great video, thank you Jenny. Out of interest has anyone tried or managed to get one of these into a Bachmann E4 please?

Great article, Jenny.

Well done

Hello and happy new year. I was wondering if these could be fitted to a w4 peckett. The space is quite restricted and I am not keen on drilling any holes in my model. I have looked into getting shops like Olivia's trains to fit one but I am only 15 and the money they ask for fitting one of the stay alives is more than the cost of the model in the first I place. Is it possible to get this system shown in the video fitted into the peckett? I hope this makes sense. Thanks Oliver

Happy new year Jenny

Great Video Jenny , I don't know why they did not combine the power control board and the stay alive into a single unit , it would have eliminated the long cable needed to connect the two together , each stay alive needs a control board anyway Regards David

Hello Jennifer ... Just trying to fit the two cap'ter stay alive to the Bachmann 08. I am aseingy both the Zen black chip that allows the plug in stay alive. As you know the cab roof is the obvious place for the stay alive two compoents, but would you believe the wire from the chip to the plug in stay alive is too short! If the had givenen you another 1/4 inch you would have been OK, but another good idea gone to waist because of a 1/4 of wire. If anything the ubiquitious 08 is the engine that cries out for a stay alive. Come on DCC Concepts get your finger out

i think for n gauge it would be better if manufacturers just pre fittted stay alives as standard - esp for 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 locos

is it possible to use a capacitor or stayalive system on a non DCC (ie DC) system? I am still on DC with no plans to change to DCC (my layout doesn't warrant it)

How do stay alives work with an emergency stop command from dcc contoller, do these work with esu loksound decoders? Cheers

Happy New year to you both please stay safe . I thought I'd keeper my wife' safe from covid

It must be the power board that is improving the slow running and I thought that was what the DCC chip was supposed to do. Train-o-Matic' stay alive would take up less room and ok, you have to solder them onto the chip. I think Train-o-Matic will look at this and maybe change their decoders and stay alive's. I am not a DCC guy. This is just my opinion. Martin. (Thailand)

Hi Jenny is thay a Janus Been in one ICI had them?

hmmm woulder if one of them would fit in to a hornby class 08 new tooling ?

loksound and hornby should've come up with stay Alive by now thats fits to their sound chips!

Those look great probably not to long before we get a small sound decoder with built in stay alive.Hope you Jen.Hope you and Zoe are ok?

I hear their developing a loco with a battery which charge S of the track instead of a capacitor. Hopefully this will come soon .

Hi Jenny. Do you know of anyone who manufactures a stay alive for standard DC? I've done a search on the net but I can't find any information.

Hellion class 7? Never heard of Hellion

The best 'stay alive' loco is to be found in a clockwork set. It does not need any electricity at all! There is no soldering to do whatsoever. How about that? There is a slight drawback that you have to wind it up with a key and it will cause a short to your DCC controller, but then again the price is very competitive!

Soundtraxx current keeperalsouseaplug

Really nice 👌 😍💋 💝💖❤️