RS6 board randomly fails

Hard to say what happened, but the RS6 boards are stored in FLASH memory, so it's possible that something got scrambled.

I set up a separate little test harness and motherboard for testing RS6 boards since they're unique from any other version of Railsounds.  Do NOT try to plug the RS6 board into any other version motherboard, they have a unique pinout.

I'd try removing the R4LC and unplugging the motor driver board.  See if you can get the RS6 board with a known good generic power board to come up in conventional mode.  If it's still scrambled, you may be out of luck on that board.  Obviously, you've probably already discovered they are no longer available.

I was thinking about trying that, that little RCDR is snuck right up under the mother board. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Really hope I can get the sounds back considering Lionel killed buying a new board.

any chance something in the amp circuit died?

Take a read at this link.  Gunrunner helped me get my RS6 board (actually speaker grounded) problem solved.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...9#182325629009855289

I'm sure you have done this but reminder to wipe the volume potentiometer in case you are at a bad spot.  Also, look close for anything contacting the soldered terminals on the sound pot.

I have looked at the Pot, I don’t see any issues there when testing with a multi meter but suppose that could be making some artifacts in the sound 🤷🏻‍♂️.

I have also checked all the speaker wiring  and the speakers themselves and still nothing.

Well, I would check to see no wiring is grounded.

Thanks guys, I've still found no short to frame ground. Just baffling why it failed when it did. Any reason I can't pop it into a steam RS6 mother board with the tender by itself?

@zhubl posted:

Thanks guys, I've still found no short to frame ground. Just baffling why it failed when it did. Any reason I can't pop it into a steam RS6 mother board with the tender by itself?

Do you have a steam RS6 equipped locomotive?  There was only a handful of products with RS6 made.  I suspect the only hope is to repair the existing board.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Do you have a steam RS6 equipped locomotive?  There was only a handful of products with RS6 made.  I suspect the only hope is to repair the existing board.

I have two other RS6 equipped locomotives. 6-11208 and 6-11220

if the sound files really are scrambled in the FLASH memory any chance you think Lionel would reflash the board for me? (Probably tell me to take a hike 🙃)

@zhubl posted:

I have two other RS6 equipped locomotives. 6-11208 and 6-11220

if the sound files really are scrambled in the FLASH memory any chance you think Lionel would reflash the board for me? (Probably tell me to take a hike 🙃)

Well, first off, try the board on one of the other locomotives.  However, I suspect the chances of Lionel tinkering with the board are very close to 0.00%.  It doesn't hurt to ask, but I don't see that as a real possibility.

I confirmed, I get the same garbage with the ES44 board on a different motherboard with all known good components.

Well, that's a bummer, I think you're out of luck as far as I can see.  You might try Lionel to see if it can be reprogrammed.  I didn't think that was possible, but I recently needed a specific older model Lionchief board from 2016, and they actually custom programmed one.