I just finished an install upgrade of a electricrr cruise commander deluxe combo kit in my Hogwarts Express engine. This was my third attempt. The first two attempts worked electronically, but my tether was too stiff and would cause the tender to derail on corners. After taking a month off (to cool off) and to order a new tether from digital dynamics I got back at it today. It went quite smoothly. However, it didn’t quite work. It is important to note that my previous attempts all functioned electonically (as I stated), but now I stumped. I emailed ERR for help, but last time it took a week or so to hear back. I thought I would pick your brains to see if any of you might have troubleshooting suggestions for me while I wait. Below is the email I sent to ERR support:
"Hello help,
Today I completed an install of a Deluxe Cruise Combo Kit in my lionel Hogwarts express engine/tender. It went pretty smoothly. However, when I went to test out my install I discovered something was amiss. I just have no idea what it could be and hope you might have a suggestion on where to begin troubleshooting.
I installed both the cruise commander and the sound card in the tender because the hogwarts loco is VERY narrow and I then tethered the tender to the loco. The engine powers up just fine and responds to all commands and programming just fine. However, there are two problems that I assume are interrelated. When the engine goes forward it goes full throttle and responds to no speed adjustments. The only way to stop it is to hit the change direction button on my Cab-1. Then it stops. In reverse it opperates as it should with speed steps. However, when I switch it back to forward it waits until I rotate the speed dial then takes off full boar again. This behavior is 100% consistant on this new install (my other locos opperate normally). The other issue is that the card seems to short out. After the track is powered for a while the loco just shuts down and one of my turnout indi
It does sound like a short, but so far all the connections check out. Obviously I am missing something. Fortunately ERR has been quick in responding to me. So far they are just asking clarification questions, but hopefully we’ll find a suggestion soon. If not, I’ll just need to tear it all down and reconnect the wires one by one. While this project hasn’t been incredibly hard, it hasn’t been easy to snake the wires in all the places they need to go. I am not looking foward to redoing it again. (However, I am looking forward to running my Hogwarts when it is done!)
I have done the ERR upgrades and the short sounds plausible, but you might try taking a close up photo of the circuit board and send it to ERR. A little solder in the wrong place can make things act strange. If they can’t fix it via email, they will make it right. They have done that for me on a sound board.
Same here with me. No questions asked. I called them and the tech guy had me do tests and when I called back, “Pack it up and ship it back.” 4 days later, new board arrived.
ERR was very responsive and very helpful. Actually after days of troubleshooting they suggested it might be faulty and go ahead and return it. Before doing so I took one last good look at al the connections and wires and discovered a miniscule pinch in one of the wires. It didn’t look like much, but sure enough there was a slight wire exposure causing a short. In addition, I had wired my LED backwards causing (to me at least) bizzare light functioning which only complicated the diagnosis.
Well, it’s all straightened out now and my Hogwarts is now cruise and command control. SWEET.