Athearn Genesis Loco running problem

[NP01]

I have an Relatively new (1 year) Athearn Genesis GP15-1 that was a great runner. Then it started to stall everywhere. I cleaned all the track painstakingly and also the wheels. My other B-B loco that was also having trouble is no fixed, but the Genesis problem remained. 

So, I opened the shell up finally and found that the connection of wires to the Tsunami was loose. I removed the stock "black boxes" that hold the wires in the holes and soldered them. Voila!

Well, now I ran this loco for a while and it's getting warm ... I don't know if this is related to soldering or not, but I just noticed the warming. Well, the loco is back in the sheds on an unpowered track. 

What might be the matter?

NP. 

[woodone]

Decoders do get warm, so do motors. Is it getting warmer that it did before? Or did you notice?

If it is running and all of the lights are working OK I would say that  you are good to go!   

[zstripe]

NP,

All electric motors get warm from running,,,how warm is warm??Hot,now that's a problem,drawing too much current and you would be able to smell it.. If there was a problem with the wiring,it would not run..

Cheers,

Frank

[Soo Line fan]

Is it put back together right? Anything rubbing or binding? Drive train lubricated?

[NP01]

I do think I put back together ok, but I am going to check for wire pinching again. Warm means definitely noticeable compared to other engines ... But all others I have are larger, except a Genesis MP15. I just noticed the warming, and it is at the top side of the shell where the decoder is. I will check lights as well. 

[zstripe]

NPO1,

Now you have me wondering,if your motor,is drawing too much current and maxing out your decoder,output??

Cheers,

Frank

[NP01]

It's a factory decoder. Why would it just start to do this?

[Mark R.]

Tsunami decoders do run quite warm as the processor runs at a very high clock rate. The Tsunami Micro borders on hot and quite often requires and external heat sink to prevent thermal shut-down.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. If it gets too hot, it has its own internal thermal protection. Unless your engine keeps shutting down for no apparent reason, then you are ok.

Mark.

[fisker76]

Tsunami decoders can get very warm with out any untoward damage. The decoder will either flash the headlight or the light on the circuit board warning of overheating if there is a problem. Run it.