Still repairing in the aftermath of the earthquake
Entry posted by petertg
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In DCC Questions I raised a query concerning a possible PCB failure in my Class 108 DMU. As a result of the fall the decoder had developed faults, so I removed it and inserted a blanking plug and tried the vehicle with an analogue controller, with no success. I assumed that the PCB might be damaged and dismantled the power car to the extent of even removing the motor from its support. When tested it worked so a number of further tests as recommended on the Forum led me to suspect that the blanking plug was defective. I replaced it with another one and got positive results and to-day I even managed to reassemble the vehicle practically in no time (much to my surprise). Further testing revealed some faulty power pick-up through the non-powered bogie of the drive car. I removed it, fettled up the chassis pick-up pads and cleaned the bogie pick-up pins and it now seems to run O.K. Also I commented on the Forum that I had damaged a good decoder in that the white wire had broken loose. I dared to resolder it and it appears to work although when I first replaced the decoder compartment lid, both rear and headlights came on simultaneously. The locomotive in question has very little space for the decoder and the harness so I had to fold the latter slightly better than it was to be able to replace the lid. It now seems to work properly. Both the Class 108 and this locomotive have only been tested on a separate two foot track I have really prepared for programming (although by switching leads from the controller it doubles up as a mini main) and I have not yet tried them on the layout.
Just a year ago I said that I had finally completed the underside of the layout and added photos. With the earthquake this is no longer true since I have to reconnect some point motors and some new droppers which I added to parts of track that I had to lift and relay. At my age my body is not in the best of conditions to work under the baseboard and perform contortions and to tilt it on edge on is becoming increasingly harder each time. The best thing in my favour is that I am not usually pessimistic
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