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Williams Jersey Central Trainmaster FM Reverse Unit Issue

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Williams Jersey Central Trainmaster FM Reverse Unit Issue
Posted by jsonova99 on Saturday, January 7, 2012 4:55 PM

It's an older Williams engine Made in Koreavwith an orange box and no horn.  It has two can motors and there are three DIP switches underneath to control the Reverse board.  If I switch just fwd on it goes forward and if I switch just rev on it goes in reverse so I know it has the ability to go in both directions.  When I switch auto on it runs the same as fwd only mode.  When you cycle the direction button or cycle power it goes right to fwd, no neutral position and no changing directions.  I'm running with a Lionel CW-80 transformer.  Any ideas where to start?  Board looks fine, no obvious loose wires or anything.

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Posted by rtraincollector on Saturday, January 7, 2012 5:03 PM

Well you gave me info I never had as I have an older I think Williams PRR trainmaster but when I got it it had a reverse board in it but that was it. no horn no nothin and only way I could tell it was Williams was the inside of the cab and the rest looked like Williams. well it now has tmcc and train-sounds and it works great still has the dual motors in it and now it sports a speaker where the vents are in the roof lol. the screen looking area. mine has a plastic fuel tank where the newer ones have a die-cast fuel tank. I never had a box for mine but sounds like they were close in age in being made except mine doesn't have any switches underneath or a spot for them I put the tmcc switch next to the cab door as if you where going up the steps.

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Posted by TrainLarry on Saturday, January 7, 2012 6:50 PM

  Did the loco work properly in the past with the CW-80 transformer? Try another transformer to start with. Could be a bad DIP switch, or more than likely, a bad board.

Larry

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Posted by jsonova99 on Saturday, January 7, 2012 7:22 PM

Just got it, although I thought when I first put it down it either started in neutral or reverse because the front lights were not lit until I hit the direction button.  Very nice engine otherwise.  It does respond to the direction button, you can hear it click and cycle, but it just goes to forward every time.  I may try to make heads or tails of the board if I can, but I have no pin diagram for the two chips on it.

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Posted by ADCX Rob on Saturday, January 7, 2012 8:10 PM

jsonova99
...I'm running with a Lionel CW-80 transformer....

I think I see your problem.

I'm not kidding. 

Instead of the direction button or lever on the CW, unplug it to cycle the reverse unit.  The issue is that the CW is notorious for not going all the way to zero volts... some engines are more sensitive to it than others.

Just try it to eliminate it as an issue - may or may not work.

Rob

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Posted by TrainLarry on Saturday, January 7, 2012 8:17 PM

Probably a bad chip.  May want to swap it for a Dallee unit if it is not under warranty. Chance are the IC's won't have part numbers on them, or may have "house" numbers that are useless.

Larry

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Posted by jsonova99 on Saturday, January 7, 2012 8:25 PM

I thoughtbthecsame thing, so I disconnected onevofbthe leads from the back, didn't seem to make a difference, worth another try though.  I was going to hook it up to my ZW, but I don't have any TVS diodes in place and didn't want to blow the board in the process of troubleshooting.

 

(excuse the typos, the iPad does some weird auto corrects, and doesn't let you edit the text on this site for some reason)

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Posted by jsonova99 on Saturday, January 7, 2012 8:26 PM

My ultimate fear with this (bad chip with no chance of troubleshooting)

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Posted by ADCX Rob on Saturday, January 7, 2012 8:30 PM

Rob

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Posted by phillyreading on Tuesday, January 10, 2012 8:13 AM
Rather then blame the circuit board, try a differant transformer, like a post war ZW or an MTH Z-1000. The CW-80 has a few problems with it, so use a differant transformer before blaming the circuit board on your Williams engine.
Interested in southest Pennsylvania railroads; Reading & Northern, Reading Company, Reading Lines, Philadelphia & Reading.
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Posted by jsonova99 on Friday, January 13, 2012 10:12 AM

Is anybody familiar with these older Williams reverse units?  I want to make sure that I'm not doing something dumb with the switch settings.  I assume that all you does set the auto switch to ON and operate like any other unit.  If there's something that I'm missing here let me know, otherwise I'm just going to swap it with one of the modern Williams reverse units.

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Posted by jsonova99 on Friday, January 13, 2012 10:23 AM

Never mind, it was the transformer.  Got a chance to run it with my ZW and it's fine.  Like it was stated before, the CW transformers must not go fully to 0v.  I'll have to install a few TVS diodes so the I don't actually fry the board.  Thanks for the help.  Just need to add a True Blast 2 and this will be a really nice engine for not much money.

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