TAS Turbo smoke unit, thermistor ?

The time constant of the thermistor is too long. I wonder what is the resistance range, and direction of resistance with heat, of the thermistor used? Is it in series with the resistor and increases resistance with heat? Or is it in a control circuit? Schematic?

     I'll have to search for a schematic. 

     I'm not good with electronics at all. Well I'm good at releasing the inner smoke of components but I'd like to avoid that this time.

     From what I can tell, this is a NTC thermistor. Meaning as heat goes up, resistance goes down.

     Putting probes on the thermistor shows voltage full time. I don't recall how much, maybe four or five volts constant. The main resistor though shows a cycle on and off again I don't recall how many volts. 4,5 maybe 6 volts.

      I'll search for some schematics.

                                                                                           Dan

Open the smoke unit up and move the thermistor away from the heater. That was one of the very early fixes we used to do with the USA Trains Hudson's that used the TAStudios smoke units. 

I agree with the previous post, I think moving it away from the heater should solve the problem.  I have a couple of these smoke units in my parts box, and when I run them on the bench, the heater cycles, but I never lose smoke, the cycle is pretty quick.  They also don't have much wicking in them, perhaps you have too much and that affects the sensing.  I was surprised when I first took one of these apart.

      Thanks for the replies.

      I did replace the original wicking with some pink insulation, perhaps I've put to much in.

      The heater does cycle pretty quick, seems like too quick with the heater element never getting hot enough to produce smoke once the whole unit warms up.

       I'll remove some wicking and see how that goes.

                                                                                   Thanks again, Dan

     Casey Jones, I did move the thermistor away from the resistor element. 

      I didn't notice an improvement. Once the unit begins to cycle it never really warms up the resistor again. 

      Gunrunner John, I did remove a good amount of wicking and it did smoke better at first  until the cycling began then it just stays too cool to form much smoke.

      Soooooooooo, I clipped off the thermistor with the intention of lengthening the leads to stuff the bead way up by the fan hoping to keep it cool. Before I did that though I put the top back on and gave it a shot.

      SMOKE, good smoke, lots of smoke however the resistor never shuts off. I ran it that way about 5 minutes. I took the top off and everything still looked good. No charring, resistor looked good but clearly if it runs low on fluid things are gonna burn up.

       I suppose even if the fluid level doesn't get too low it might still burn something up.

       It's been a fun experiment so far.

                                                                                              Dan