1931370 J not Responding

I’d be certain the antenna wire is making good contact with the radio board. Make sure the antenna, grab irons are not shorted to the shell. Maybe try to power it up without the shell? Double check all the JST connectors

Just isolated the shell and and checked connections. No luck. Still no response. I have ordered a replacement RCMC just in case something is fried. Until then, I will keep mulling it over and would appreciate the help.

@Trainmaster04 posted:

Just isolated the shell and and checked connections. No luck. Still no response. I have ordered a replacement RCMC just in case something is fried. Until then, I will keep mulling it over and would appreciate the help.

I’m sure gunnerjohn will give you more insight on this.

@Pu239 posted:

I’m sure gunnerjohn will give you more insight on this.

Agreed.

It certainly sounds like something was damaged in the repair process.  However, I wouldn't stick a new RCMC in there until you verify that there wasn't something shorted/grounded that took out the old one.

If you're poking around inside the locomotive, this is a document you should have: Legacy Bruk RCMC & RSLITE Rev.2019.pdf

I had this symptom once when I had my 0-6-0T apart. I plugged a plug into the wrong slot. It was a two pin plug I think.

Did you unplug things from the board when you had it apart?

Does it run in conventional?

@BillYo414 posted:

I had this symptom once when I had my 0-6-0T apart. I plugged a plug into the wrong slot. It was a two pin plug I think.

Did you unplug things from the board when you had it apart?

Does it run in conventional?

Yep, that can happen easily. The antenna plug can be accidentally plugged into the wrong slot. There are many open connectors with the same connector as the antenna!….

Pat

If the antenna was missing and it was getting no signal a brief interruption of power should send it on it's way in conventional mode, that's obviously easy to check.

Thank you everyone! I’ll go through the form you posted John and see if everything is where it needs to be.
I do not believe the antenna is missing as it will not cycle through. As soon as power is turned on both smoke units go full blast.
Also, I did not unplug anything off of the board. I will still check everything though just to have peace of mind.
Thank you again everyone for the help!

Smart Phone pictures are your best friends in cases like this.  Even though for the most part I know where things go, I always take a picture before I disconnect stuff just in case.

Hope you locate your issue.

@Trainmaster04 posted:

Also, I did not unplug anything off of the board. I will still check everything though just to have peace of mind.

Well that might blow some of theories out of the water if you didn't unplug things. It's worth making sure all plugs are fully seated though.

@BillYo414 posted:

Well that might blow some of theories out of the water if you didn't unplug things. It's worth making sure all plugs are fully seated though.

Agreed. I have work today but will work on the engine some more on my lunch break and this evening.

Looked through the engine and checked the connections. Via Johns pdf, everything is correct and properly routed. I did however notice the wires for power to the motor is in the j10 plug and not the j11 plug. Any concerns?
I next tried isolating the smoke units from the board. When both are unplugged nothing happens. However, the locomotive still does not respond. It also does not power on. I then connected the aux smoke unit (whistle) and the locomotive acted like it has been. I did the same procedure with the main smoke unit same response.
I finally checked to see if anything was grounding out inside the main smoke unit. Nothing.
It appears the smoke units have a direct correlation with the symptoms. Does this sound familiar to anyone? I’ll also post a photo of the RCMC so you all can see what I am looking at. Thanks again for the help.

@Trainmaster04 posted:

Looked through the engine and checked the connections. Via Johns pdf, everything is correct and properly routed. I did however notice the wires for power to the motor is in the j10 plug and not the j11 plug. Any concerns?

The J10 & J11 connectors are in parallel, they're created equal.  It doesn't matter if you use either one, the result is the same.  Some diesel installations use both as a wiring convenience.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The J10 & J11 connectors are in parallel, they're created equal.  It doesn't matter if you use either one, the result is the same.  Some diesel installations use both as a wiring convenience.

Thank you John! I figured this was the case as I read your pdf but wanted to be sure.

If you want me to check out the RCMC, I now have the capability of testing them outside the locomotive using my recently constructed RCMC Test Set.  This makes it a whole lot easier to diagnose what is going on without any external circuitry being involved.

I just spoke to my friend and he is fine to have the board sent to you John. Both he and I greatly appreciate your help.

Are you sure the wires soldered to the bottom of the fan motors didn't touch the chassis during reassembly? That's something that can easily happen when moving the smoke unit around (especially if you resoldered the wires and had a larger blob of solder on the fan motor) and the wire position changes. Wire lead on the bottom of a smoke unit fan motor touches the chassis, boom, dead board on power up.

@Lou1985 posted:

Are you sure the wires soldered to the bottom of the fan motors didn't touch the chassis during reassembly? That's something that can easily happen when moving the smoke unit around (especially if you resoldered the wires and had a larger blob of solder on the fan motor) and the wire position changes. Wire lead on the bottom of a smoke unit fan motor touches the chassis, boom, dead board on power up.

I do not believe it has but I will check. I will also check other parts of the chassis to see if I am missing something.

Update:

I was able to get in contact with John and was able to get the board sent off to him today. Also, the new replacement board has been shipped and should get here on Saturday. I did call Lionel to see if I can return it, if John is able to repair the original board, and they said I can.

While I was taking off the original board I went ahead and taped the smoke unit points. I do not believe they made contact but you can never be too safe. I also check the ground/hot connections. They were fine as well. As of right now, the only thing I can figure I touched something I was not meant to while power was on. Oh well... live and learn!

I would be very interesting in finding out what the problem ending up being. I hope it can be fixed!

Before installing a board again, measure ALL the wires to the board to frame ground and track hot.  Other than the one 4-pin connector that brings track power in, you shouldn't find any other continuity to the frame or track power.

Good evening everyone. Hopefully, this will be the last update on this thread.

The old board arrived at John's location today and he was able to work his "magic." He determined the board's processor was fried. Unfortunately, it cannot be repaired. On the bright side, Lionel's new replacement board also arrived today. I will go back through the locomotive to see if anything is out of place and install the new board.

I cannot stress how much I appreciate your help, John. If anybody needs work on their electronics, John is the go-to guy!

Good afternoon everyone!
I was able to get the locomotive fixed and find the short. It ended not being me but the Blue Tooth board going bad. It shorted out and subsequently fried the original RCMC board.
I figured this out as I was installing the new RCMC. After I put it on the locomotive ended up giving me the same problem. Thinking I messed up I realized the only part I did not isolate was the BT. Sure enough, once I unplugged it from the RCMC everything went back to normal.
Crazy how something so small can take down a major piece of equipment.

Wonderful! Added capability that doesn't even work reliably ,takes out what really counts.

It's still somewhat of a mystery what happened, but I think it took out the little switching supply on the RCMC.

Was there any evidence of the Bluetooth board shorting to the chassis?

@Lou1985 posted:

Was there any evidence of the Bluetooth board shorting to the chassis?

From what I saw, no. Lionel placed the board in a plastic frame attached to the chassis. The only connection the board has to the chassis is via the RCMC.

Interesting. It stinks that it was fried but at least you figured it out and got it back to running.

I encounter a lot of mystery events like this at work on CNC machines. It's always a bummer when you can't find that real cause but it's a relief when things are working again.