What is a good troubleshoot for a smoke generator for an n scale Arnold 2510 (0251)? It was smoking, but won't now. I've tried all levels of fluid and also taken the locomotive apart, but see nothing obviously wrong. Also, is a replacement part available anywhere if the generator proves to be faulty? Thanks for any thoughts on this. Jim
Hi Jim,
You could try measuring the electrical resistance of the smoke unit. There should be some low resistance that heats up when the power is applied. If you have a multi meter set it to ohms scale and connect it across the wires that come out of the smoke unit. I am not familiar with the Arnold one but most seem to have one wire and the metal body is the other connection. I would set the multimeter on the lowest ohm scale as I would think you would be measuring below 1,000 ohms. If you get no reading then you need a new unit. If you don't have a multi meter, get one, it will be very handy for all sorts of trouble shooting and they are cheap.
Alan
Alan Jones in Sunny Queensland (Oz)
I do have continuity with a certain amount of resistance through the smoke generator. Not having a real good setup to see if I have 12 volt on the locomotive contacts for the smoke generator, I checked to see if I have continuity between these two contacts and I do. I'm not sure exactly what the continuity on the locomotive smoke generator contacts means though.
Well, I did come up with a setup for checking the voltage and I do have full voltage at the locomotive contacts for the smoke generator. So everything should work, but it won't smoke.
Thanks. Finally got it smoking and it boiled down to a touchy off/on switch. I won't be turing it off for a long time.