Hello,
I bought new spectrum 4-8-4 and installed digitrax decoder.
I programmed the locomotive in the programming track .
I moved the locomotive to main track and I could see smoke from the decoder with a burning smell.
I am not sure what happend. I have been using the same track to run my HO Atlas diesel locomotive with out any problem.
Any idea what could have happend.
Thanks for all the help
Kenneth
Perhaps your decoder got fried because of static electricity. It may have caused a short, which in turn may have caused smoke. I know computer hardware is very sensitive to static. I believe the board are constructed similarly, are they not? Perhaps this happened to you.
I don’t know.
14GA wire, a WWII surplus toggle, an Ohmmite rheostat, and a Selenium Rectumfrier…
If you ever did have a problem, you sure knew where it was.
Apparently, due to several similar posts I have seen, things do short when the shell is re-installed, and sometimes there is a solder blob on the back of the plug, or wires touching.
Always a good idea to see if that “dcc-ready” is really ready for dcc.
TOC
Is this one of those 8 pin plug-in installations? Did you use a decoder with a plug or did you hard wire it straight in. A wire might have touched its neighbor. Are you certain the decoder burned or is it just the lead to/from wires.
Decoders (all electronics) run on magic smoke once the smoke has leaked out, it’s all over. Remove the decoder and check for shorts (ohm meter ) and then recheck!!
Alot of decoder companies have a goof proof warranty, send it back.
Ken.
good luck with finding a solution!
If you installed a decoder with the 9-pin header and used a wire harness with the NMRA 8-pin plug on it, there’s a possibility you left the green wire touching metal within the tender. Instant short circuit guaranteed to turn a perfectly good decoder into a smoke generator, though for only a brief instant in time. Any wires not connected to the NMRA socket should be cut short if not used so they don’t touch metal.
I don’t know what type of warranty Digitrax offers on their decoders. TCS decoders have a “goof proof” warranty, meaning that they will replace it even if the decoder is damaged by your improper installation.
HAHA! I love it[:D]
Anyway, your problem is you have a short. If the “magic smoke” came out when the locomotive was sitting still, it is either a short on the track pickups or the lights. If it only blew smoke when you tried to move it, you have a short somewhere in your motor circuit. Check and recheck all your wiring, find the short, fix it and install a new decoder.
And, like I said earlier…
Watching that loco manufacturer’s board, there have been reports of solder blobs or bridges on the back of the socket, wires touching, socket shorted against the chassis, plus any of the above mentioned by others.
A problem I recall with Bachmann steamers is with the tender. If somehow the wheel sets get turned around this will cause a short and a burn out. Check the tender wheels to make sure the insulated side of the wheels are not on the same side for both trucks. I.E. front truck, insulated side to the left for both wheels and rear truck, insulated side to the right for both wheels.
If someone (Mfr, or Dealer) installed it ,you have recourse. If YOU installed it . there is none - unless some maker want’s to eat crow.
Buy TCS decoders, priced right and come with a 1 year goof proof warrenty, Anything happens send it back and they will replace it no questions asked. I haven’t had to use their warrenty yet, but it’s nice knowing its there during instalation! I have only used 3 of these and no problems.
I whole-heartedly agree. I have installed dozens and dozens of TCS decoders through installing them in my own locos and the decoder installation buissiness I have. Never had any problems with them. I have used the warranty a couple times and have always got new decoders promptly. Way to go TCS[:D] Now just make one with sound!
dont feel bad same thing happened to me with my bachman diesel
Bachman don’t seem great where “DCC Ready” labels are concerned - I’ve fitted a decoder to one of their Doodlebugs using the socket supplied, but discovered that I had to modify the wiring loom by adding two resistors to stop the lights melting and rewiring the interior light to be controlled on F1. What I don’t understand is that there’s a spare pin on the plug where the rear headlight would usually connect - if they’d wired the interior light to this I could have done the work using a CV alteration rather than having to break out the soldering iron!