I need advice on a dcc repair

[drew]

Greetings,

I need some advice on how to repair some damage on my HO Proto Heritage Berkshire.
My 5 year old son lined a switch half-way causing the Berk to go down one track while the tender tried to go down another. 
There was a big short and after examining everything here is what I have found out:  the Tsunami decoder is ok.  The lighting is ok.
My problem is this: the circuit board that the engine tether plugs into one one side and the decoder is hard wired to on the other side is melted in the tender.
The engine will still run with all sounds but it gives the error message with the blinking headlight. (This is how tsunami decoders let you know there is a problem.) The 11 blinks show that there is a problem with the motor contact.
After folling the wire leads and the onto the circuit board I have discovered the red wire has melted on the board and there is a break of current.
I called walthers and asked to order another board but they wont sell me one.  Since I bought this used they will charge an unholy amount to fix it.

[jward]

wow. they won't sell you a part?

i know this doesn't solve the problem, but maybe you shouldn't buy any more proto equipment. especially for what those things cost, you'd think they'd stand behind them.....

[tiz]

Hello,

It is almost impossible that wire is melted and PCB track is broken, to have decoder outputs not burned. With that current mostly output transistors are burned.
I don't know the configuration of that decoder and the wiring, but you can try ( with some electronic knowledge) to track the wires and PCB tracks if possible. If you can see where is track broken or wire melted, maybe you can try to replace the wires, patch the broken track on PCB and clean all shorts. If after  that  you still have error then probably decoder motor outputs are burned, or repair is not done correctly. Maybe you can bypass some tracks on PCB ( printed circuit board) with wires direct to the motor or lighs. Most locos have connection from the tender to the main engine as 2 motor wires, line for the light and two wires for the power pick-up from the rails, plus one common wire ( for lights accessories etc.).

Good luck!

Zdenko, Toronto

[Jim Banner]

While I mostly agree with tiz, some adapter pcb's have traces connecting the tender wheels to the locomotive wheels, then to the decoder.   Under the circumstances outlined by drew, there can be a current from the rails on one side to the rails on the other side via one of these traces.  Under certain circumstances, usually involving a booster or power pack that can provide enough current, this type of short can blow a trace right off the board.

The repair is usually quite simple - use a piece of wire to bypass the bad area of the trace.  If the trace is burned where it connects to one red wire, it may be possible to disconnect that one wire and reconnect it at a different location along the trace, preferably where another wire already connects.

Resetting the decoder might cure the flashing light.  But it would help if you could read back and record all the CV's before doing so.  This is where a program like Decoder Pro and the hardware to run it are really helpful.  Returning the decoder to "as was" settings then takes minutes instead of days.  (I am assuming the Tsunami used by LifeLike resets to Soundtraxx's defaults, not LifeLike's defaults.)  If that is not a possibility, you could disconnect the headlight from the decoder and rewire it to be always on.

Jim