Red and Black wires are shorting everything out.

[lisican]

A  DZ125 was working fine, then it started shorting out (I think, it made that beep/buzz sound). I double checked the wiring, and all was fine, so I thought it might have been the trucks, so I removed the black and red wires and touched them directly to the track, and then it would still short out as soon as the wires touched the rail. I peeled back the wrapping on the decoder to see if one of the wires had moved into the other's territory, but it hadn't.

Is all lost? Should I accept this one as a lost and move on, or is there a quick fix I don't know about?

Thanks

nick.

[Jacktal]

I'm no decoder expert...other people on this forum can tell you more and I'll also learn in the process.If it happened to me,I'd try disconnecting the motor to see if the sound persist.It seems to me like the motor is binding thus the sounds you hear.Just a guess.....

[lisican]

I forgot to mention... The motor is disconnected. I installed the decoder in a tender of a 4-6-4, which included plugs for the motor wires, so the engine wasn't plugged in. Only the tail light. I'll try removing that, but there aren't any visible short circuit spots, so I'm not sure what's going on.

Thanks for your help though.

[lisican]

Con-Cor N scale 4-6-4. And disconnecting the tail light didn't help. Spark still fly and short out the system when the wires touch the track.

[Rotorranch]

Is a tender truck turned around perhaps?

Rotor

[lisican]

I thought that might have been the case, so I removed the decoder from the tender completely. Now it's a decoder connected to a reversing lamp. No more, no less. And still sparks fly when the wires touch the track. Same as when it was installed in the tender.

[Rotorranch]

If nothing is hooked up, it sounds like it fried!

Rotor

[lisican]

DCC is becomming really expensive, really quick. 

 

Thanks for the help.

[lisican]

Yea it smells like something burnt. The thing I don't get is that it was working fine, then out of nowhere, it started shorting out. Not sure what happened. I've got a multi-meter, not sure how to use it for a decoder though. What'll I need to do?

[lisican]

Yea I understand it. Thanks a lot, I'll give it a try.

 

nick.