I have 2 CWs - an early one w/ the common red A-B connectors and a later one w/ the common black U-U connectors.
When phased A goes w/ A and U with U interestingly enough. Taking apart the earlier CW it seems I could do the following…
Reverse the A B and U U connectors INSIDE the unit
Replace the plug w/ opposite polarity plug
This would produce a consistent common U U on BOTH units and keep both units in phase. It would however leave the whistle and bell buttons reversed on the modified unit. It would also leave a properly wired accessory power supply as to common as well.
While it’s open I’m also thinking I could install a bulb mount so that a ‘pilot’ bulb w/ a lense could be in the circuit all the time to ‘bleed off’ voltage and make the older unit work properly, cycle e-units etc…
It shouldn’t be too hard to swap the whistle and bell buttons also. The two switches are connected to the integrated circuit through 10-kilohm resistors R1 and R2. You may be able to swap the two signal paths by lifting and crossing over these resistors, particularly if they are leaded and not surface-mount components.
Unfortunately the resistors are surface mount. However I did as you describe with through hole resistors in place of the smt ones.
pgtr,
I wouldn’t add a light bulb inside the transformer, I would use a lighted lockon or add a bulb at the terminals of the transformer. There really isn’t any additional room inside the case, and you wouldn’t want the additional heat build up inside either.
Good point on bulb heat. And having reassembled one of these things there is definately not much room in there - they must have been tedious to assemble originally at the factory too I would guess.
FYI - project was successfull… I have succesfully ‘corrected’ an ‘early’ CW to work fully and properly (as it SHOULD have when it was originally designed, engineered and produced)
What I did was:
Reverse polarity of wall plug/cord
Reverse wires on inside of transformer between red and black posts
Reverse pins 12 and 14 on the chip/socket on the board (this was tricky)
Replaced tamper resistant fasteners w/ normal screws
It now:
Has common between black U and U as it should
It properly phases w/ ‘later’ CWs (black to black or shared U to U)
The whistle operates the whistle and the bell operates the bell as it should.
There’s a couple places inside w/ sufficient room to add a bulb to the track outputs, not sure on the heat issue, maybe next time I crack one open I’ll consider it… If it protrudes enough on the outside of the case and is far enough away from the heat sink, maybe it’s not an issue.