# Turntable not calibrating



## IlliniViking (Dec 13, 2009)

I posted this in my layout thread, but thought i might get a response here. I ran into an issue that has me stumped. Last year when installed the turntable it was working fine. I put the bridge back in but when I tried to calibrate it, the TT just keeps going around and around. I cleaned the metal prongs and the sensor with no luck. I also did a reset, still no luck. I've done some searching on the net but have not found a solution. Not sure if it went bad or what. Anyone ever seen or had this issue? It's the Walthers Cornerstone 90' DCC turntable.


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

Dust on the IR sensor maybe? Will it find the "zero" position?


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

IlliniViking said:


> I posted this in my layout thread, but thought i might get a response here. I ran into an issue that has me stumped. Last year when installed the turntable it was working fine. I put the bridge back in but when I tried to calibrate it, the TT just keeps going around and around. I cleaned the metal prongs and the sensor with no luck. I also did a reset, still no luck. I've done some searching on the net but have not found a solution. Not sure if it went bad or what. Anyone ever seen or had this issue? It's the Walthers Cornerstone 90' DCC turntable.


I had that problem with the original DCC version of the 130' turntable.

There the issue was the little hole in the bridge and the pit had to line up for the sensor to trigger BUT they weren't

Check to see if you turntable is perfectly flat - that nothing has caused it to "warp" in any way.

It doesn't take much to get that hole alignment off.

Frederick


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## IlliniViking (Dec 13, 2009)

Jerry, no it will not find the zero position. The only option is 1 and 2, and of course without calibrating it has no clue where they are. I've blown on the sensor to get out any dust, and they are so small, my eyes wouldn't be able to see anything in them.

Frederick, I had taken down the layout thinking we were going to sell our house. The layout was stored in the garage with the pit installed, but the bridge was in the original packaging. I will work on it some more to see if it's an alignment issue. Everything seems to look correct, but you are right it would not take much to throw off those little sensors. 

Thanks for the replies.


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## IlliniViking (Dec 13, 2009)

Well good news, bad news. Good news is it's working again, bad news, I'm not sure what the issue was. I ended up taking the cover off the bottom of the turntable to make sure everything was still connected. Everything seemed to be connected so I put it back together and low and behold it worked. I'll keep an eye on it, but hopefully it's fixed for good. My concern is it's a loose wire and by taking it apart I wiggled it enough for it work....for now.


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## fcwilt (Sep 27, 2013)

IlliniViking said:


> Well good news, bad news. Good news is it's working again, bad news, I'm not sure what the issue was. I ended up taking the cover off the bottom of the turntable to make sure everything was still connected. Everything seemed to be connected so I put it back together and low and behold it worked. I'll keep an eye on it, but hopefully it's fixed for good. My concern is it's a loose wire and by taking it apart I wiggled it enough for it work....for now.


It's possible it was/is a loose wire but it seems more likely to me that something changed the alignment - perhaps being stored in the garage - plastic can deform with temperature.

Glad to hear it is working.

If it acts up again try taking an IR remote of some sort and blast IR at the pit sensor.

I had an actual IR emitter that I wired up to a battery with resistor and was able to verify the pit sensor was working.

I initiated a calibration and as soon as I hit the sensor with IR the bridge stopped.

Using a cell phone camera you can usually see if an IR emitter like the one in the end of bridge is emitting.

If the emitter is emitting and the sensor sensing then it will be an alignment issue.

Let's hope it keeps right on working.

Frederick


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## IlliniViking (Dec 13, 2009)

Great advice Frederick. Hopefully I don't need to use it


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