So I got my other issues all sorted out with my other questions... now... I'm trying to put a DZ123 into an Atlas GP9.. my brother just got into the hobby, and I wanted to be a good brother and put a decoder into this for him. I tested all the decoders as per the instructions and they were all good. So I'm sitting here, with the frame all modified. I put the wires onto the motor no problem, did everything by the numbers. rigged up the lights to make sure they would work when i tested it.. proceeded to test the motor and whatnot outside of the engine, to see if everything worked fine before reassembling it, and one less point of failure if the frame wasn't insulated properly. Put power to the first one, instant smoke. Figured I screwed something up (though i have no idea how on earth i could screw it up), tried another one. Smelly electronic burning. I managed to squeeze one into a Mikado boiler with no problems, and I figured this would be a million times easier than that. I'm down to my last decoder, and safe to say I'm a little hesitant at blowing up another one. Anyone else had any of these problems? Hints? Tips? Suggestions?
Sorry, never worked with a decoder that small. HO is my scale. The best place to get answers is the Digitrax group at Yahoo Groups. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitrax/ With over 4000 members, someone should be able to help you. David
Todd, Sounds like you had a short between the track power and the motor contacts. Motor leads may be touching the frame somewhere? Not sure what you meant by 'rigging the lights', but they shoud be operational only via the decoder. If they are still attached to the frame leads then they may be the cause of short? I can't test the lights till the decoder is working properly. Here is a site that gives instructions on installing a decoder in a Atlas GP9. It may help locate your problem area. http://www.trainweb.org/nrmrc/dccconv/atgp9o.html ..Eddie
rigging the lights as in i connected the lights to the proper wires to see if they were working. I can't have a short between the track and the motor contacts, as the motor is sitting on a piece of foam, grey and orange wires connected to that, and the red and black wires to the rail via little alligator clips, and the rest of the engine isn't anywhere nearby Worked fine on the programming track. Even after it smoked, I could still read/write CVs. I looked on that yahoo site and didn't see anything.
Todd, If all you had was a free standing motor wired, then the problem has to be with the motor. The motor must be pulling too many amps due to stalling or shorting out. This can happen if the gray and orange wires were soldered directly to the motor brush heads. The heat of soldering can damage the motor brushes. Not sure how you attached the gray and orange wires? This could account for every decoder smoking that you try. Can you test the motor with just DC current, either a transformer or 9 volt battery. If it doesn't run then that's your problem. If motor works okay .... then back to the drawing board? The decoder CV's and lights may still work even after burning out the decoder's motor current output components. ...Eddie
I popped the caps off before i soldered the orange & grey wires. I did check the motor on a DC track before I left for work, and it spun up no problem. I also turned the motor slowly by hand to see if I could feel anything making the motor hang up, and didn't feel anything, it spun freely. I think its back to the drawing board I'm going to email digitrax and see what they have to say. Thanks for all the help! --Todd
little update: getting the first decoder replaced.. yay! and weirdly enough, i was very bored this morning, so i decided to give the 2nd one another go, since it was all soldered to the motor and everything.. and amazingly enough, it works perfectly. Go figure. Now the fun part.. getting it all back into the frame and hunting for shorts, and somehow squeezing the shell on..
