On one of my older engines (2003 with RS4 and TMCC) the fan smoke unit has never smoked at all from day one. I normally run with smoke off, but recently I started using smoke again on the layout.
Anyway, I opened it up and made the usual changes, ditching the heating element sleeve, fluffing up the wadding, wetting it with smoke fluid…then watched for the fan direction…well the smoke resistor does get hot, but I never see the fan move at all… So I guessing that the connetions to the heat element are good getting track power but after that, between the element and the dc motor, there is no dc for whatever reason.
I’m debating whether I should continue troubleshooting this as to why the motor is not spining the fan, or just getting another fan smoke unit controller board and move on. So my question is, are the fan smoke unit controller boards pretty much standard for all engines and there for I can get a generic one from Lionel with a part number? When I searched for parts for my engine, nothing was found resembling a fan smoke unit control board…
Any help would be appreciated.
I’ve “played” with these a lot. Never noticed a difference. Now, one of the three leads to the board is for the fan motor. Use a digital [if you have it] volt meter. Check the center pin coming through the board to each outer pin [don’t short across the two pins] as one is heat and the other is fan. If no voltage there, trace the wire back to see if bad connection. Also wiggle the connector and see if it starts the fan. Also seen solder connection bad coming through board. Might touch each pin with a small tipped soldering iron [do not get solder across the pins]. I usually buy [have several in my stock] Lionel smoke units to smoke dummies. Not that expensive and they are mainly the same. I would just get a whole new unit. Not that expensive.
I’m okay with swapping out the entire smoke unit or the smoke unit control board, but I don’t have a part number. My circuit board it black not green and there is no gasket between the board and the reservoir below. Does Lionel sell the entire smoke unit or just the circuit boards? And are they generic that many models share this part or parts? I’m suspecting the problem is at the regulator.
Anyway, metering out the problem is next when I get a chance.