ERR issues

It would be pretty rare for one to short like that without a reason. 

One issue is the screw mounting the board heatsink to the chassis coming up and touching the board. 

Another common installation issue is either a defective motor or one motor lead grounded.  Either can take out the driver FET's that results in a short across track power.

Hi John, thanks for the assistance.  Definitely not the mounting screw, it does not protrude past the aluminum mount.  Maybe the motor, will have to double check that.  So the circuit breaker on the transformer tripped when this happened and I do not see anything on the board that appears to be fried or smells that way.  Are these boards pretty resilient to this kind on thing or do you think it is up in smoke?

First step is to disconnect the motor and power up, see what happens.  If the motor is shorted, or one lead is grounded, it could have taken out the driver FET's, I've repaired a few of these that have suffered a similar fate.

@Cadillac Mike posted:

Hi John, thanks for the assistance.  Definitely not the mounting screw, it does not protrude past the aluminum mount.  Maybe the motor, will have to double check that.  So the circuit breaker on the transformer tripped when this happened and I do not see anything on the board that appears to be fried or smells that way.  Are these boards pretty resilient to this kind on thing or do you think it is up in smoke?

The Cruise Commander is connected to the track via the 4 pin black molex connector located between the FETs. Pull that connector off the board and see if the transformer still trips. If so its not the Cruise Commander.

Pete

Cruise Commander doesn't have a black Molex connector, that's the Cruise Commander M.  I think we need to know for sure which board he has.

No molex cable here, just the regular Cruise Commander.  This was to upgrade an older Weaver Alco model before they went to TMCC so the power and motor leads are wired directly into the ERR CC. 

Update- the motherboard is definitely the issue, it shorts out as soon as power is applied from the track. Are these repairable and if so who can do it?  Seems a shame that a brand new board lasted less than five minutes.  I had another one in stock, installed it in the diesel and she runs like a champ.  Sound is a bit low even with the pot cranked to the max.  Guess I am used to those MTH units that shake the house when they are running. 

Thanks all,

Mike

Did you try contacting Scott Mann at 3rd Rail?  He usually stands behind his products.

Bob is right, that's your first step.

Will do that first, thanks so much!

Update, I spoke with Scott Mann and sent him photos of the install.  He completely stood behind the product and is sending a replacement. So nice to see this type of customer service in this day and age.  Kudos to Scott and the 3rd Rail team!

Scott is excellent with customer service, other companies could take a lesson from him.

Glad that Scott got you fixed up.