Scott1707822906

Well, I've officially given up on this C8217 powerbase. In the last round of testing, I replaced all of the diodes. The output of the powerbase at the lugs where it connected to the track rails was 7.5 volts. When I put a car on the track, the car sort of tried to move and the red power LED dimmed like a short circuit. One of the problems with this repair was the very poor original assembly with sloppy solder joints and 6 jumpers sloppily soldered in place. There are lots of leads left where they snipped off some diodes and it looks like maybe some burned traces. Thank you Andy for your advise and encouragement. Unfortunately, this repair attempt was a failure.

Follow-up: I continue to be shocked by the poor assembly of this PC board. While desoldering the main 1N4001 diodes (D5, D6, D7, D8) I found four broken leads. I'm assuming these leads were fatigued during assembly. Although with the number and quality of jumpers and other version hacks, the broken leads might just as likely be revisions as opposed to errors. The good news is that I'm retired so this kind of messing around with electronics is just as fun as anything else I might be doing (messing around on my boat, building cedar planter boxes, hiking around the local lakes, etc.) so cost of labor = NIL. And 1N4001 diodes are $1/dozen so... 1/4 of a Starbucks latte. Even with rampant inflation, I can manage that expense. We will see if replacing the diodes fixes the powerbase. If it doesn't, I'll consider buying a replacement. I'll have only wasted $1...

The solder joints all looked "good enough" considering general made-in-China hand soldering. Probably assembled by a 9-year-old under poor lighting... I checked the diodes this morning. D7 is definitely bad and probably D5 as well. I'll unsolder them from the board and take them to my semi-local electronics store soon -- maybe Thursday. Hopefully he has something close...

Hello Andy, I'm trying to avoid putting money into this layout. It's for my young grandnephews. I checked the hand controllers and they are fully functional. Then an inspiration struck. The sound the cars were making was oddly familiar. In the USA, everyone knows the 60 Hertz hum of the main household electrical system. I measured the voltage at the track again, but this time I had the multimeter set to measure AC volts instead of DC volts. The meter immediately showed voltage peaking at around 19 volts AC with the controller trigger on full. This tells me I've got a bad diode on the printed circuit board of the powerbase. There is no discoloration on the board so I'm going to try to identify the bad diode with the meter.

Hello Andy! The cars, controllers, powerbase, wall transformer... everything... is from that "Le Mans Sports Cars" set. The cars I am testing are the Scalextric analog Cadillac Northstar Le Mans cars from the above mentioned set. I have tested the cars on my analog PoliCar track and the track from the Le Mans set. The Scalextric set cars run as expected on the PoliCar track (I think they will benefit from a small amount of added weight near the front of the cars) but just hum and vibrate on the Scalextric powerbase. I have cleaned the rails on the Scalextric powerbase.I haven't taken a voltage reading off the spade connectors with the switch in both positions -- only the single-transformer setting of the switch. I'll try the dual-transformer switch position. It's a little difficult because I could use an extra set of hands to hold the multimeter leads to the test points plus pull the trigger of the controller. I'll scrounge around for some alligator clips in the garage...Yes, trigger pulled on full. It's difficult with just 2 hands but the alligator clips should make that easier. They are the controllers from the set with the tip-ring-sleeve conductors on the mini phone plugs. Where on the controller plug should I measure resistance? Between tip and ring? Tip and sleeve? I did disassemble a controller and make sure the wiper was making contact with the resistance windings. I sprayed a small amount of contact cleaner on the windings while it was open. Thank you for your suggestions. If it turns out the powerbase is faulty, what Scalextric part number should I get for a replacement analog powerbase? --scott

I'm trying to get a 22-year-old "Le Mans Sports Cars" T2 set running. The set has a C8217 powerbase. When I operate the trigger, the cars sort of hum and vibrate but do not move. The cars run fine on my other (different brand) track. Voltage at the power transformer barrel connector is about 19 volts AC. Voltage at the tabs under the track (where the leads from the powerbase connect to the rails) is under 1 volt. Do these powerbases fail? Is there someplace on the printed circuit board where I should test? Stumped in WA, --scott