Hi Folks
Has anyone ever came across this prob before. I installed a tsunami heavy into a bachmann 2-6-6-4 and now I get no light working. I hard wired the decoder in ( removed the circuit board). I’ve pulled the boiler off and checked all the wiring and I have good continuity all the way up to just before the little circuit board which all the wires route thru to goto motor and rails and lite . I have a 750 ohm resister in series coming off the decoder on the white light wire and the other light wire is the blue common. Funney thing is where the little circuit board is inside the boiler there is continuity between the - and + of the lite wires I’m wandering if this is normal? I was actually getting power ( but not now) just before the little circuit board in the boiler.
Off the top of my head NO. Check the Blue and white, Are they touching anything? You did shrink tube all splices? Did you remove the lttle yellow caps ( the half moon guy on the pc board). Does your tender light work? Are all the DCC functions working? Have you turned off the light function with the throttle? How are you programing it?
Mine has no sound in it and when I put it on the layout the headlight did not work. Turned off and reset the system. Sellected the loco and it has been fine since. Murphy I guess!
I don’t have one of these engines, but it’s possible that Bachmann has the color coding on the light wires reversed, and that you subsequently have the headlight LED wired to the wrong polarity. Bachmann Spectrum models have been notorious for wrong wire color coding…
As a last resort, you might consider contacting Bruce Petrarca at Litchfield Station (http://www.mr-dcc.com) and ask about the wiring colors. Bruce has a special offer in the November 2006 issue of Model Railroader on the Bachmann engines with Tsunami sound systems.
Well the first thing that comes to mind is to switch the LED wires. You see on that board the red and black wire held on by black plastic clips labeled LED+ and LED-. Switch those around and try. But from what you said I think the a short might be the real problem, in which case you will have to find the problem and fix it and possibly replace the LED.
Thanks guys some good suggestions . I have succeeded a bit more as now I get power upto but not past the resistor but only when th elokie is set in one particular direction . I’m thinking possibly the resistor I have wired in series is too big and not allowing the power to pass thru . I’m also thinking perhaps I have the motor wired backwards as the power shows before the resistor when the hand controler shows the lokie in reverse.
Has anyone got any idea what voltage lite bulb would be in this 2-6-6-2 as perhaps it is a hi voltage lite, as well would other bachmann spectrum steam engines have the same voltage. I have 4 more tsunamis to install 2 heavies and 2 mediums.
Well you should only get power to the light on one direction setting since the decoder has directional lighting, you can fix the problem of the headlight being on in reverse by changing a CV, im not sure what it is on the tsunami but it should say in the manual.
The picture of the board you posted says LED+ and LED-, that says to me that your light is an LED, LEDs only work on one polarity, that is why i suggest switching around those two wires. Unless you have another resistor somewhere in the line, a 750 ohm resistor shouldn’t be too big for the LED, just curious how much voltage are you getting before the resistor? Most of the LEDs you find in locomotives need 1.5V.
EDIT:
I looked closely at your pictures and although its hard to tell from the angle it looks like you soldered your blue wire to the LED- pad. Blue should be your positive wire, and again since LEDs need a certain polarity I think it might be a simple matter of reversing those red and black LED wires on the side of that board.
I also see that you soldered the yellow wire to the LED+ lead, Yellow is the - wire, but more importantly it is usually the rear light wire. That is why your lights are reversed. No need to resolder anything, just change that CV.
Thanks Joe I did switch the wires around at the decoder so that yellow pos + goes to blue common on decoder and blue negative off the small board goes to white lite on decoder . I also changed the wires around on the motor so now when I put it in forward the lite is coming on well its not coming on I now beleive its burnt out as I do show power directly at the LED wire leads with a test lite. I also tried with a lower ohm resistor and no resistor( for second or 2 ) and I get power now.
Yep you probably burned up the LED. It doesnt take much to smoke one of those guys and a second or two with no resistor (roughly 14 volts) is plenty. You should really invest in a multimeter. They only cost a few bucks and they can measure voltages much lower and much more accurately than a test light. Luckily LEDs arent terribly expensive, just get one the same size and remember that the long leg is almost always positive.
Folks, I have found the Grain-of-rice from Micor Mark. No Resistor required and they do not burn plastic. I taped one to an old box car hit it with 14 volts and let it sit overnight. No damage, they due run very cool. Come in Amber, clear, red and green. Just a thought.
Thanks George I’m going to need a bunch of LED’s for a control panel and to replace the burnt LED in this engine . Turns out the lite wire was grounded to the motor wire inside the boiler. All is well now . Thanks for all the input .
