Skip to main content

Reply to "TCS WOW decoder problem with MTH smoke unit"

I found on my TCS501 board that the hole in the board to mount onto whatever stud / mount / bubble gum that you use to mount the board...the hole is very close to the smoke output terminals.  I originally used a #8 pan head phillips screw, but the head stuck out high enough to make it really hard to get those smoke leads into the board.  When I pulled the mounting screw, I actually noticed that one of my smoke lead wires had frayed as I was inserting it, and a little part of the frayed wire actually wedged itself into the mount screw.

I hadn't applied power at that point, but if I had there's a good chance that the lead would have connected to ground.  As I understand the TCS board, they don't actually regulate the voltage on the light / smoke outputs.  They just pulse full battery voltage (minus I think 1.7 volts for some internal diodes and whatever) to achieve an equivalent voltage. And they do so by pulsing the ground.  So if that lead was grounded to frame, regardless of what setting was in the programming, the smoke coils would have had full battery voltage 100% of the time.

I was lucky enough to catch before I turned it on.  That screw is really tough to navigate around.  In the end though, it works great!

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

×
×
×
×
×