BLI hudson just died!

[mikebonellisr]

Has anyone else had this happen?...My 1st run,BLI Hudson died while just sitting on a siding with a train of 5 lighted passanger cars.What brought my attention to it was the sudden lack of sound.The engine went dead but the cars stayed lit and other engines continued to operate so it was'nt a short.Is it possible that the decoder fried?I tried to re-set it but that did'nt work.Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Maybe you should contact BLI. I hear their customer service is excellent.

[AggroJones]

Did you make sure the electrical plug between the Hudson and tender is firmly connected?

[twhite]

Are you on DC or DCC? I'm on DC, had the same problem with my Pennsy M1-a not too long ago, fiddled with the connections and it turned out that they weren't solid. BLI connections are VERY sensitive--those prongs are SMALL! Had to take a pair of needlenose pliers to the connections to tighten them up, then the loco ran fine. You've got to remember that BLI has about a zillion more connectors from tender to loco because of the sound and DCC, so everything has to be firm. I mean FIRM! Good luck, these BLI locos tend to run very well.

[mikebonellisr]

Thanks Aggro & twhite....I had not considered the connection because the engine was'nt moving.I went to the layout and checked the connection,but it's not the problem.I guess it's off to BLI tommorow.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

Maybe you should contact BLI. I hear their customer service is excellent.

Why not? Maybe they can trouble shoot over the phone.

[cspmo]

This hapen to me a few time. Try pressing F-6 twice,or use factory defalt.

[Anonymous]

A tip from a BLI user here in England. When I first had my Hudson she stopped suddenly, and it turned out to be caused by the speaker magnets attracting a surprising amount of metal junk from the track, you know track pins, and anything else remotely magnetic. Once piece shorted the speaker out to one of the tender wheelsets, and stopped her dead in her tracks. Once cleaned out she ran as good as gold again. Also if the sounds change tone, or lack clarity, the same cause is often at the root of things.

[AggroJones]

Clean those wheels throughly. Flanges, treads, tender axel wipers, and inner rim of the drivers. Use rubbing alcohol on q-tips.

[twhite]

Aggrojones as usual, has a great point. Rubbing alcohol and Q-tips are about the best cleaning solution I've ever found for locomotives. It works especially well on the BLI locos.

[darth9x9]

I have seen several BLI locos with this problem. Usually they just need to be taken off the tracks to be reset (PIA) but often they need to go back to BLI. Hopefully when there is more cometition in the factory-sound market, BLI will do a better job of engineering......or go out of business.

BC

[PNCROSE]

I believe that BLI has a trade-in program. Send in the old Hudson with about $100 and you get back one of the newest versions with updated electronics.