The sad thing is besides knowing absolutely nothing about volts vs amps, or realizing the conditions it takes to fatally shock somone,

The really sad thing is how this could scare parents, and scare others away from the hobby due to her lack of knowledge.

Greg

p.s. in the conditions where there is danger of shock, it's the older people who are more at risk, not strong healthy children!

The person need to talk to someone who understands electricity.

This statement:
"The use of high voltage power systems at these shows is worrying as they pose the potential risk of causing injury to a child which could be fatal given the right circumstances. Rich and I would like to try and get our members to consider changing out their power supplies if the output of them is greater than one amp. "

clearly shows the author really should stick to knitting, no wait, nothing with sharp objects!!!

voltage and current are very different, and affect humans differently

voltage can produce danger if it is high enough.

current flows when the voltage is high enough, and does not flow otherwise.

In simple terms, you can hold the terminals of a 500 amp car battery and nothing happens... because the voltage is low.

You can touch a 400 volt power supply that only supplies 100 milliamps (one TENTH of an amp) and die.

Yep, as they say, "trust the science", but first contact someone who knows the subject before saying something is dangerous.

greg

p.s. yes, I vote for the title to be "spark of stupidity"

Is it the 8 pin NMRA socket?

I doubt that Soundtraxx would list a decoder for the LS Lyn, since (as I remember) it has what people consider an "HO socket"

Greg

Absolutely!

I think we have established that the smoke unit is not controlled by the decoder.

So you need to check the wiring to the smoke unit, and the unit itself. They can burn out if run dry.

Voltmeter time.

Greg

Graphite on the "decorative" gears is fine, less stuff stuck to them. Since virtually no load on them, it really has never been an issue as long as I can remember, and I was in the hobby when the loco was first released.

The gearboxes are most important, good grease on the gears, heavy oil on bushings.

Greg

If weight did not solve it, you need to improve your trackwork, vertical transitions, track warp, etc.

OK,

1. the documentation on the loco specifies 8 wires, but does not assign any pin numbers to any socket.

2. your documentation on the decoder specifies that the function outputs have a limit of 100 ma

3. by deduction, the smoke unit wire must be connected to the rear headlight output

3. I doubt seriously that the smoke unit is 100 ma... but test it at track voltage.


Do you have a wiring diagram, i.e. which pin of the decoder is connected to which wire on the loco?

In any case my opinion is unchanged, the smoke unit current draw exceeds the decoder capability.

Greg

So the smoke unit lead comes to the DCC decoder interface.

What is not shown is the actual circuit, clearly one lead of the smoke unit goes to the decoder, the other lead is connected to what? +5v, rectified track voltage? The decoder common?

Looking at the interface, there is no provision for the decoder common, so the inference is that the LED and the smoke unit have their "other" leads connected to the track pickups, most likely through a diode.

I would try to trace both leads to the smoke unit (and the LED) and verify this.

I'd also connect the smoke unit to the DCC power (through a full wave bridge) and see how much current it draws.

My best guess is that the smoke unit probably draws 1/2 amp and exceeds the current rating of your decoder.

Please indicate the make and model of decoder used.

Greg

The headlight should go on and off with F0, nothing happens?

I don't think the smoke unit is wired into the decoder at all. There is a separate smoke switch.

Good call, this has happened before.

Yep that is old news 

Told you Bill was "the man".... thanks for the help Bill...

Greg

chuff trigger....

the manuals are here on this site...

https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/dwg/dwgs/LS%202-4-2%20(Connection%20Diagram).pdf

With all that I heard on no more new 1:20.3, I was not surprised that Kader/Bachmann brought back a modern Aristo diesel. I would not have chosen the track-curvature-sensitive Dash 9, but if you watched the video, the "ebay prices for Dash 9s" was mentioned twice.

I would have voted for a loco more able to handle smaller curves, but even the SD45 is a bit long in the tooth age wise.

Greg