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Hello, I am new to the forum but I brought some pictures of my setup and I am hoping you all can guide me in the right direction with respect to my problem.
I recently went back to my parents house and dusted off my old LGB trains for my kid to play with. They have been sitting in my old room in a closet for almost 15 years totally untouched.
So today I set them up and tried using my lighted RR crossing but it is not working. I broke it all down to see if I could locate a problem and I am not seeing where it could be malfunctioning.
Maybe I am hooking it up incorrectly but if I remmber correctly as a kid, I just connected the two wires through the track. Actually a sa kid I just smashed the two wires in between where the two tracks connected.
If I manually make the electrical connection on the RR crossing with my finger, the red light on my transformer goes dim and the brass connectors that i am manually connecting on the RR crossing arc a bit. To me this indicates a short but I am no expert so I am hoping you guys can help me.
Here are some pictures of my setup and a few up close pics of the circuit board. I don't see any signs of arcing or blown electronics. I was trying to ohm out each resistor and check all fo the caps but I was having a hard time getting my probes on all of the connections.
If I manually make the electrical connection on the RR crossing with my finger, the red light on my transformer goes dim and the brass connectors that i am manually connecting on the RR crossing arc a bit. To me this indicates a short
Here are some pictures of my setup and a few up close pics of the circuit board. I don't see any signs of arcing or blown electronics. I was trying to ohm out each resistor and check all fo the caps but I was having a hard time getting my probes on all of the connections.
I don't believe that the circuit board is going to be the problem. I think I would start by testing the pressure switch separately from everything else to make certain it is closing properly. Then I would check the circuit board by applying proper power unassociated with the pressure switch. Only after both work separately would I put the two together.
The pressure switch is nothing more than two metal contacts touching. It is a bent upwards peice of brass or copper and when the track pushed downward that contact touches the other and electricity flows. I have tested both ends of each contact and they both have track voltage. One side negative and the other side positive which would seem to be correct. TO me a short like this would not be caused by a blown out or burnt resistor, capacitor, or xducer. I feel like it should be two thing touching that arent. But for the life of me I can't find or see anything wrong electrically. I have ohmed everytghing out and it all seems normal.
I'm guessign this thing is probably never going to get fixed by me. I have spent over 3 hours tinkering with it. I hate to throw the towle in because I can't find any other units for G scale that light and manually operate.
If anyone else has any thoughts please don't hesitate to chime in.
Now that sounds like a great idea to troubleshoot. I will go look at it right now and see what I can see. I wouldn have never thought to look into that part of the bell ringer.
No dice on the winidng idea. I really thought that was going to be it. The windings were not the problem. I disconnected them from the circuit board and it still was doing the same thing. I took the lights apart on the crossing signs and found a really crappy solder job where it looks like two of the leads were probably touching. I separated them but still nothing was working.
Without a wiring diagram I am having a hard time figuring out what is going on on the board. Not sure if some operations are normal or not. I did notice that some of the diodes are getting hot when I hook this stuff up. Two of the diodes that are getting hot drop to zero ohms when I set the multimeter to the diode test range. The other two seem fine and they rang out at .506. I also noticed that this circuit board was built in China. Crappy!! There is also a capacitor that is loose in its connection hole. Looks like I have a lot of resoldering to do and I will go from there. I may have a conglomerate of issues causing other issues.
Does Radioshack still sell resistors, caps and diodes?? I will update with my progress.
Ok boys, here is the deal. I think I figured it out. The diode in the picture below is getting so hot it melted its solder and made contact with the other diode next to it. This is my short.
Now the next question is why did it get so hot? Did it go bad or were the crossed wired in the lights of the crossing what made it go bad or get hot?? Radioshack here I come.
Just a thought, and I may be wrong, thinking back to my old AF days, but it seems to me that the lighting circuit should be on a separate power circuit from the track. All you need is for a power supply going to the unit and its the pressure plate that "turns the power on to the lights".
It seems that when the power is connected to the track, and the pressure plate is pressed, all you're doing is connecting both rails together and thats where your short is.
Every lighted, operating accessory I've ever seen in the larger scales, required a separate power tap of straight voltage, from the "transformer" to power it.
