I have been having issues with the newer release Kato E unit light boards. The PC boards in the newer locomotives are double sided and have traces on top. The contact leads coming up from the motors have been shorting out under the plastic clip causing the LEDs to burn out. Has anyone else had this problem? I have to replace the LED and put kapton tape between the board and the brass motor leads.
I haven't seen that problem, the Kato E units are one of my favorites and one of the larger sections of the roster. But I have converted most of them to DCC, so that may why I am not seeing the problem. Are the light boards seated properly? Are they loose fitting?
They are the identical size as the old single sided boards and fit the same. They drop in and slide up under a small plastic hook in the middle and are held in place by the little plastic plastic clip that also holds the motor contacts down and in contact with the conducting spring strips along the side which pick up from the trucks. The trace that goes from the LED to the load resister passes right under the motor lead so eventually develops a short to the full track voltage. I was running two new E-5's and after they ran for a while and warmed up I noticed the LED went out. I have changed about half of my E's to DCC so it is only the new ones that I run on the analog lines of the club NTRAK layout where I have seen the problem.
Wow, that is strange indeed.I will have to look and see if I have any new releases that are not converted to see what you are talking about. I usually run the for a few minutes in both directions to make sure they run smoothly, then I install the decoders and do a proper break-in. I may never had them warm up to the point that this happened. I just opened a recent SP Daylight locomotive from the last release, 176-5308 number 6046, and it still has the single sided board. Are you talking about newer that this unit? About the only thing newer is the City of Los Angeels E units....
I have several boards in front of me, one appears to be from an E-5 as it has an un-based ( no ledge on the LED) and it has traces on both sides. It is a Kato 3051. I have not seen any problems with these as I run all DCC, and the factory boards last about 15 min. till I install DCC. I am not sure what the problem is. The other's are Kato 3010. Bob.
While I use Digitrax boards in my E units, I typically wrap the long phosphor bronze contacts with capton tape where the motor leads come up through the frame. This prevents shorting issues with the contacts/board. While it sounds as though you're having a slightly different issue the capton tape is the best solution (I mean hey, nasa uses it on multimillion dollar spacecraft!). HTH, The S.
Ok, I stand corrected. I checked the boards that came out of the E5's I have and they did have the two-sided boards in my e-waste box of light boards. I guess that I swapped in decoders and never noticed this.
