I recently purchased a Bachmann DCC K4 4-6-2 and a Tsunami sound decoder to be installed later.
Upon arrival I connected the tender to loco and the steam engine seemed to work fine. As a next step I separated tender from loco and un-scewed two screws that held top of tender to frame. Also un-screwed one set of wheels from frame. Then separated the 8 pin decoder connector from its seat. The tender has a seat for a speaker on the bottom, so I experimented with how my Tsunami speaker and enclosure would work. I am waiting for an 8 pin male to solder my new Tsunami TSU 1000 sound decoder to. I put the tender back together without top just to make sure everything was working. I reconnected the tender to loco and tried to test the unit. It shorted out my Digitrax sebxd. Isolated tender from loco and the tender is offending unit. Took out the Decoder to see if that would correct the short. I am at a loss to understand why the unit is now shorting when it worked earlier. What could be causing the short? When i turn on power to the track digitrax DB 150 beeps 3 to 4 times then cuts power to the track. I have another DCC engine that works fine. Must be something in the tender. I am new at this so don't always know what to look for. Very frustrating. thank you for any help
Just a guess here...could the removed set of wheels have been reinstalled wrong?Tenders pick current from one side (usually left track) so the right side wheels are insulated.It seems you may have reversed them upon reinstalling so that the tender bridges the tracks together,thus the short.Just a guess.....
Jacktal Just a guess here...could the removed set of wheels have been reinstalled wrong?Tenders pick current from one side (usually left track) so the right side wheels are insulated.It seems you may have reversed them upon reinstalling so that the tender bridges the tracks together,thus the short.Just a guess.....
I believe that is a very good guess. Had that problem on a BLI Mike out-of-the-box.
Dante
The Bachhmann tenders pick-up current from both sides of the track. On the K4 the front truck picks up from the LH rail and the rear from the RH rail.
Bob
bobwrght The Bachhmann tenders pick-up current from both sides of the track. On the K4 the front truck picks up from the LH rail and the rear from the RH rail. Bob
Even so, if you put one of the trucks on backwards, it will short, unless you also rewire the truck. If the pickup is through the frame of the truck on one side, then they must be oriented correctly.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
That solved my problem. It took me a minute to figure out that on the tender each set of wheels has a insulated and non insulated wheel . I indeed had placed one wheel set incorrectly, setting up automatic short.
My other problem was to figure out left vs right rail. Left and right rails are based on my looking up the track from rear of the train. Thanks for the help... it's so simple when you know what your doing.
wrv
When Bachmann went to DCC thy changed how steamers pickup. Drivers both sides. Tenders, one rail for the front truck, the opposite rail for the rear truck.
Some Bachmann tenders, the truck can swivel all the way without bing removed and this causes a short and confounds the clueless.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.