Bachmann DCC decoder causes fire

[know2gogg]

Hi all,
Just wanted to share, that last week we had two incidents of Bachmann decoder malfunction, which caused the PWB to burn and char my carpet. Fortunately, me and my wife were at the layout both times and didn't leave the room to pour some coffee or use the bathroom.
The first event was caused by sloppy winding and packaging of one of the solenoid coils, causing opposing ends of the coil to press against one another in perpendicular direction. Eventually, the thin coating on the wire gave in to pressure of the tight enclosure, and boom. The 50 mA output circuit had to handle 0.8 Amp, which it obviously couldn't.
We were lucky to catch both events in the making, however, we don't want to face the future when its not safe to turn your head away from the running layout. And my wife said, no more Bachmann in our house. I already opened and tidied up all the coils and I'm facing pending work of replacing all 8 Bachmann decoders.
Just wanted people to know about our experience. If anyone wants to know more detail, I can provide. Just reply to this message. Best regards,
Andrew