Voiding Warranty.

[Chrissaf]

Not sure - only way is to be honest with the seller I suppose.

 

Any 'smells'?

 

Is the blanking plate OK?

Any sign of detached / broken wires?

 

Many Bachmann 'connections' are simply a wire into a hole, with a push-fit plug to tension onto the contact - perhaps you've moved this, if this is the case?

 

Al.

[Going Spare]

Did it work before adding the decoder?

[Chrissaf]

Would opening up a new loco to fit a DCC chip void the warently on a new loco (not Hornby I hasten to add) . I ask because I have done this to one loco I bought recently and found it does not work even now that I have put the DCC blankng plate back.

[ColinB]

I would have said no it does not invalidate the warranty. How else are you supposed to fit the DCC device without taking it apart? I have said for a long time that the manufacturers should make fitting the DCC decoder as easy as possible to avoid getting broken locos back, I used to design equipment digital test equipment and the last thing I ever wanted was getting it back broken, some people like it as it makes them feel important. The trouble is on a modern loco, soon as you try to remove the body, unless you are ultra careful, ancillary bits fall off. Unfortunately, most manufacturers haven't quite got to grips with the digital age and customer rights. Next time test the loco on dc before you take it apart, it solves a lot of issues.

[81F]

 Many thanks. Sadly this one of two identicallocos which both exhibited the problem. Since the seller had failed to acknowledge any of my correspondence, and I had already taken the tender  top off, I thought I would test the loco one last time before returning it. I did this by connecting a 9V battery to the grey and orange wires of a spare DCC plug which I had placed into the locos DCC socket. To my supprise the wheels turned!

 

I then placed the loco back on the rails (less DCC blanking plate) and no short circuit. I therefore tried a different chip and the loco now works wonderfully. I can therefore conclude that both my original chip and the DCC blaning plate were faulty. Indeed, a blob of solder is rather large and I suspect that it may link two pins it should not.

 

I hope to try the second loco once I have obtained a suitable chip.

 

However, thanks again for your help in this.

[96RAF]

Usually it is a stray solder track across pins at the decoder socket, not the blanking plate the purpose of which is to deliberately link certain pinsin order to make the DC circuits.

 

Installing a decoder should not void the warranty especially if the manufacturer provides (like Hornby does) a maintenance sheet showing how to dismantle the loco, lubricate it and where a decoder fits.