So, I didn't put a smoke unit in the tender...

[Flashwave]

But yet, the DCCboard in the tender did a wonderful rendition of the cylinder cocks being open. I dunno what happened, Dad and I installed a Soundtraxx decoder, an 8-pin plug n play using the socket on my 4-8-2 C&O George Washignton. I couldbn't get it to work, we put it omn the test track at the club, track was god to every other loco, but now I have a partially melted Diode, and a steamer that reeks. Yes, I'll call Customer Service tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'm open to theories as to what happened. Also, am I guarenteed that I'll get a GW Mountain back? Cause I don't want a standard C&O pulling a crack train like this one.

[SteamGene]

The George Washington Mountain was a special run.  Figure from that.
Gene

[Flashwave]

The George Washington Mountain was a special run.  Figure from that.
Gene

I am. I don't like the results I'm getting.

[Jim Banner]

No theories but some thoughts on the subject:

(1) bad decoder.  It is best to test a decoder before installing it.  Does your club have a decoder test stand?

(2) motor draw too high.  Always test motor draw at 12 volts with the motor stalled by holding a flywheel or drive shaft (NOT the locomotive's wheels!)  A motor may draw more than what your decoder is rated for but still work on dc.

(3) motor not isolated from pickups.  It should be in a Plug-And-Play DCC ready locomotive, but sometimes shorts occur.  Often these shorts have no effect on dc operation because the motor is supposed to be connected to the wheels (through the dummy plug) for dc operation anyway.  But if there is a short that leaves the motor, even just one side of the motor, connected to a wheel when the dummy plug is taken out, then the decoder is most unhappy.

(4) failure to remove the bypass capacitors.  Unless you use a special decoder like the Bachmann decoders or adjust your non-Bachmann decoder to turn off the silent motor feature then you should remove the bypass capacitors from the adapter board.  Failure to do so may cause a problem, particularly if the decoder is being asked to work at or near its maximum current rating.

Can you provide some more information?  Where was the diode that almost melted - on the adapter board or in the decoder?  How sure are you that it was a diode and not a resistor, transistor, choke coil or capacitor?  What DCC system do you use at home and what system at your club?  Answers to these questions should help us come up with a theory.

[BaltoOhioRRfan]

If worse comes to worse, just replace by a new tender and swap the shells. That would fix the problem of not losing your George Washington. then you have to find out what went wrong.

[Flashwave]

No theories but some thoughts on the subject:

(1) bad decoder.  It is best to test a decoder before installing it.  Does your club have a decoder test stand?

(2) motor draw too high.  Always test motor draw at 12 volts with the motor stalled by holding a flywheel or drive shaft (NOT the locomotive's wheels!)  A motor may draw more than what your decoder is rated for but still work on dc.

(3) motor not isolated from pickups.  It should be in a Plug-And-Play DCC ready locomotive, but sometimes shorts occur.  Often these shorts have no effect on dc operation because the motor is supposed to be connected to the wheels (through the dummy plug) for dc operation anyway.  But if there is a short that leaves the motor, even just one side of the motor, connected to a wheel when the dummy plug is taken out, then the decoder is most unhappy.

(4) failure to remove the bypass capacitors.  Unless you use a special decoder like the Bachmann decoders or adjust your non-Bachmann decoder to turn off the silent motor feature then you should remove the bypass capacitors from the adapter board.  Failure to do so may cause a problem, particularly if the decoder is being asked to work at or near its maximum current rating.

Can you provide some more information?  Where was the diode that almost melted - on the adapter board or in the decoder?  How sure are you that it was a diode and not a resistor, transistor, choke coil or capacitor?  What DCC system do you use at home and what system at your club?  Answers to these questions should help us come up with a theory.

Not really, only beacuse I don't know the lingo. The fire was in the upper Right "quadrant, if you call the socket on the green board roughly center. (this will be my current reference point) It melted the lower of the two diodes, and charred the headlight wires heading for the steam loco itself. These were covered,a nd most likely cooked by proximity. As the tender shell was on the chassis, I never saw exactly what happened. Only following the trail of carnage. It took about a third of the decoder in the 4 seconds it was on the track. I don't (yet) have a DCC system at home, the club uses a Digitraxx I believe it's a Zephyr,  specifically for the test track. I'm reasonably sure their Diodes. They;re the big dark blue things top left of the board. The Soundtraxx unit we plugged in  looks to be alright. I don't know of a test stand, there could be one. If not, I know where I can get accsess to one.

1)No. It was a brand new decoder though, I trust Soundtraxx and don;t have a home test stand either.

2) Dunno about that, I'll see what they can do.

3) That idea was pitched out at the club. We inspected the board, but did not open up the steam locomtive. Could not find a short on the board. Shecked ALL solder points, there was no contact that we could see.

4) Bypass? I remmber vaguely reading about these need to be removed once, but I have no idea what your talking about.  I'm gonna hazarda "guess" that we didn't remove these. But UI haven;t had so much as a sneeze from my Daylight, Spectrum Doodlebug, or the Spectrum Shay. I don;t think these ghad bypasses taken out either.

If worse comes to worse, just replace by a new tender and swap the shells. That would fix the problem of not losing your George Washington. then you have to find out what went wrong.

Actually, for the extra 15, that might not be a bad idea. I think the Tender is still alright. Just stinks to high heaven.