Sound 2-10-0 board

[Irbricksceo]

Hello, my other project atm is fixing the 2-10-0 that I broke. In an effort to alleviate stalls I temporarily removed the sound board from it, replacing it with a standard decoder from a 2-8-0 that I am working on. Anyway, the wires from the rear headlight came off the board and I was wondering if rthere is a schematic of it since I cannot find the contacts to solder them back on.

While I'm at it, It ran much better with the regular decoder (for some reason), I just needed the decoder back. Is there a way to tweak the sound decoder to get the same stall improvements?

[brokenrail]

Were all the electrical wires soldered to the original board or, was a different method used? Do you have a Ohm meter?
Johnny

[Irbricksceo]

The wires used to be soldered to the board, they came loose during the uninstall of sound.

[rogertra]

Connections on the 2-10-0 are, sadly, notorious for coming loose.


Cheers


Roger T.

[Irbricksceo]

Connections on the 2-10-0 are, sadly, notorious for coming loose.


Cheers


Roger T.

Thats all well and good, but what i'm wondering is where to solder the wires back to. The rear headlight wires simply came off the board, and I do not know where to reattach. Thats what I'm trying to find out. A picture of the main board might help.

I'd probably leave out the sound decoder if I had a spare decoder. For some reason I cannot fathom, it stalls less often with a regular decoder in it. One of two problem it has is the stalls, the other is that sometimes a gear inside binds and I need to kinda wiggle the loco to get it running again.

I tell you, the 2-10-0 is my favorite Bachmann steamer (aside from the SY mikado), I love how it looks. But I've never had one w/o mechanical problems. This is the first one that kinda worked. I really wish Bachmann would do a new run of them with the Mechanical issues sorted out. I'd buy 2.

[rogertra]

Connections on the 2-10-0 are, sadly, notorious for coming loose.


Cheers


Roger T.

Thats all well and good, but what i'm wondering is where to solder the wires back to. The rear headlight wires simply came off the board, and I do not know where to reattach. Thats what I'm trying to find out. A picture of the main board might help.

I'd probably leave out the sound decoder if I had a spare decoder. For some reason I cannot fathom, it stalls less often with a regular decoder in it. One of two problem it has is the stalls, the other is that sometimes a gear inside binds and I need to kinda wiggle the loco to get it running again.

I tell you, the 2-10-0 is my favorite Bachmann steamer (aside from the SY mikado), I love how it looks. But I've never had one w/o mechanical problems. This is the first one that kinda worked. I really wish Bachmann would do a new run of them with the Mechanical issues sorted out. I'd buy 2.

I have three with loose wires, no idea where to solder them back.    

I now have three roundhouse queens.  Locos that were purchased to use on the paper mill branch account light rail and bridges for which theses locos are ideal

Once my hip has healed, I broke it a week ago, guess I'll take them to the local repair guy.  

Cheers

Roger T.

[Irbricksceo]

one day the gear binding will get bad enough that I might just send it in to Bachmann for reapair, but I'd rather not as they would probably just sub in a 2-8-0 and all of the standard line (not spectrum) 2-8-0's I've run have been poor runners that developed worse problems as time went on, with  heavy wobble & the need for very high power to get them moving (we're talking 30-40 speed steps on a 128). My SY mikado will start at Speed step 2. They really ought to re-release the 2-10-0 but that seems unlikely.

I wish I knew why the sound decoder stalls more often, not that I particularly love the sound. Its nice but I cannot get the chuff rate to match all the way though, my table isn't perfectly level so, while it isn't visible to the naked eye, there is a slight grade and it slows locos down a lot, this means that the chuffs don't match and I cannot stand that. I can't afford it right now but one day I"ll buy a new decoder and replace the sound one.

[MarcF]

If you look carefully at the board, all solder points are identified

M+, M-  = motor
L+, L-   = light (usually front light)
+, -      =  rear light ( usually at opposite end of board.

All other silk screened info is for resistor (R), diode (D), capacitor (C).  Related connection points are next to each other you will also notice.

Of the 3 removed boards I have (replaced with hardwired decoder) they all follow  the same silk screen rule.

Marc

[electrical whiz kid]

One sure-fire way to fix the problems of loose connectors, is to hard-wire between the decoder and it's respective functions.  However; I might point out that a decoder tester project would serve you well.  There are several variations of the same theme in-what else?-several mags pertaining to this hobby.
I champion hard-wiring just for peace of mind-not piece of mind.  The "KISS" approach works very well in this hobby...

Rich C.

[Irbricksceo]

I can certainly see the value of a decoder tester, in this case though, the issue was that I actually could not FIND the contacts. it wasn't a question of identifying them, I just couldn't find any contacts. I did eventually figure it out though.

As for hardwiring, I prefer the board if only for ease of use but i do see the reasons why some would prefer to take it out.

[MarcF]

One sure-fire way to fix the problems of loose connectors, is to hard-wire between the decoder and it's respective functions.  However; I might point out that a decoder tester project would serve you well.  There are several variations of the same theme in-what else?-several mags pertaining to this hobby.
I champion hard-wiring just for peace of mind-not piece of mind.  The "KISS" approach works very well in this hobby...

Rich C.

A decoder tester is valuable only for decoders. Since Bachmann  uses an  on-board receiver mother board with a 8pin, medium,  NMRA compliant socket, a tester is pointless. If a wire pops off the mother board, you have to figure it out on your own. 

Decoder tester does not help find out where the connection was done, it will only show you that something is not working.  You are missing a wire to test with. 

To test a decoder, all you need is a lamp or and resistor.  But if your decoder is missing a lead, you are screwed unless you have second one to compare too.

Marc