The son of Triangman Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 Is this the worst DCC fitting ever? A customer has brought a tender drive Hornby Princess into me for repair, it came off that famous auction site we all use from time to time EBay. The decoder has wires trailing everywhere, the decoder is sandwiched between two bits of insulation tape and sitting on some heat shrink grease and someone has removed the decoder function wires so if the new owner wanted to add lights to the loco he couldn't. http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t43/thetriangman/1059_zpsbcbc4484.jpg The loco has required a lot of work to put it right, two new bogie wheels, two new bogie axles, valve gear straightening and realigning, the coupling rods were on the wrong way round with knuckle joints to the front and wheel quartering was out, the motor middle floating wheelset had a damaged axle, the main motor drive gear was slipping and had been bodged and had to be replaced. Thankfully now all I have to do is fit a new decoder and two drive gears. It was supposed to be a minter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 22, 2014 Author Share Posted May 22, 2014 As you can see from the pic it was a right old bodge job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trainlover23 Posted May 24, 2014 Share Posted May 24, 2014 Can`t see what is wrong myself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 26, 2014 Author Share Posted May 26, 2014 Heaps wrong with it trainlover23. These are the main faults with the decoder fitting. Someone has removed the function wires from the decoder so if the owner wanted to add lights he wouldn't be able to. The decoder is sandwiched between two bits of insulation tape which have lost their adhesive over time. Someone has used heatsink grease to hold the decoder in place between the two bits of insualtion tape. The negative feed is all wrong, the short live chassis DC link wire is normally used to provide the negative feed to the motor and the decoder negative feed wire ishould be attached to this wire rather than the decoder negative wire to the brush holder screw. Someone has removed/broken off the feedwire and it's fitting clip from the positive loco/tender link pin and soldered a bit of red wire to it and insulated it with insulation tape. Insulation tape tends to loose it's adhesive power over time so is best avoided if possible. All in all it's a pretty poor fitting and performed as such. The insulation tape around the decoder had lost it's stickiness and the decoder was touching the live chassis so there were running problems with the loco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81F Posted May 26, 2014 Share Posted May 26, 2014 The son of Triangman said: Heaps wrong with it trainlover23. These are the main faults with the decoder fitting. Someone has removed the function wires from the decoder so if the owner wanted to add lights he wouldn't be able to. The decoder is sandwiched between two bits of insulation tape which have lost their adhesive over time. Someone has used heatsink grease to hold the decoder in place between the two bits of insualtion tape. The negative feed is all wrong, the short live chassis DC link wire is normally used to provide the negative feed to the motor and the decoder negative feed wire ishould be attached to this wire rather than the decoder negative wire to the brush holder screw. Someone has removed/broken off the feedwire and it's fitting clip from the positive loco/tender link pin and soldered a bit of red wire to it and insulated it with insulation tape. Insulation tape tends to loose it's adhesive power over time so is best avoided if possible. All in all it's a pretty poor fitting and performed as such. The insulation tape around the decoder had lost it's stickiness and the decoder was touching the live chassis so there were running problems with the loco. Since there is often so little room inside some steam locos (and very little scope for functions (no headlamps etc.) I often leave only the red, black orange and grey wires. Notwithstanding the crossed wires, I am intrigued about the way the left hand brush holder has been isolated - or has it. I can see a what looks like a red washer between the new tag and the brush holder so that the original retaining screw collects current from the chassis but what stops the side of the brush holder screw from shorting on the brush holder screw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81F Posted May 26, 2014 Share Posted May 26, 2014 On an allied note I wish Hornby did decoders with only four wires (other than the one for the sentinel) for general use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The son of Triangman Posted May 26, 2014 Author Share Posted May 26, 2014 The washer is being used to insulate the longer negative brush holder screw along with a teeny bit of heat snrink on the screw thread, it works fine and is an ok method, there are better ways but it works. The supply feed method isn't up to code, wiring is very messy and the little black link wire is missing, the wire is normally used for negative decoder supply professionally. Function wires are seldom removed professionally unless room is at an absolute premium, in the case of the ringfield tender they are normally left on the decoder for most locos and just tied up out of the way in case lighting, smoke etc is required by the owner at a later date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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