BLI Switchers

[leonmon]

I just went to my local hobby shop to pick up the BLI SW and NW swichers I ordered months ago.
I was told that all the BLI swichers they received are miswired, meaning they go in the opposite direction than normal.
They're waiting for a response from BLI.
Needless to say I didn't purchase them, not until BLI comes up with a fix.
Has anybody heard about this?

[Don Gibson]

FIX is easy.

Just reverse the two wires goig to the motor. - as opposed to gas consumed or postage used to return them.

[Anonymous]

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29332 You might want to check out this info posted on another topic about the the new switchers Good Luck Terry

[TBat55]

BLI supposedly ran into quality problems after moving ops from China to Korea. My SW7 bottom sticker said "Made in China" and works correctly.

[Anonymous]

I just got a sw7 yesterday at a swap meet, and I am really having prolems with it. Mind also saids made in China. Ran about 30 feet derailed on a 22in. turn ,also going thru,a no.6 switch.Then it stopped and just will not go, when you crack the thottle you can get to idle,but when you go any further it will not move and just starts sounding like a record on a turntable with a skip. The front truck seems to be hanging up making it to derail??
I sure hope BLI stands behind these. Will let all know what I hear from them.

[mdtell]

You can't just rewire the leads to the motor because then the back headlight will be on when the engine goes forward and will be off when the engine goes in reverse. It is necessary to reverse the leads goind into the cirquit board from the trucks. To do this without disassembling the entire engine, I spliced the leads going in to the miniplugs and then reversed the wires ( black to black/red) when I re-soldered them. Once I did this everything worked fine.

[TBat55]

Another noteworthy difference (besides the "Made in China" sticker) is the volume control.
My SW7 and traded-in Hudson both came with magnetic wands AND plastic screwdrivers to adjust the volume. The manual describes the magnetic reed switch, but both my models have potentiometers adjusted with the screwdriver. There are design changes or problem fixes going on...
I bought my SW7 from Walthers 2 weeks ago. My Hudson trade-in came at Christmas.

[raynbecky]

It's super easy to fix this if you are a DCC user folks. No big deal here. I have 3 of these and they are nice loco's and unique models. (They are not the same as the Kato or LL.)

Just program CV29 Switch one to either 0 or 1 until it is going in the right direction.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by swdave
Ran about 30 feet derailed on a 22in. turn ,also going thru,a no.6 switch.Then it stopped and just will not go, when you crack the thottle you can get to idle,but when you go any further it will not move and just starts sounding like a record on a turntable with a skip. The front truck seems to be hanging up making it to derail??
I sure hope BLI stands behind these. Will let all know what I hear from them.

I just got my undec SW7 ph2 from Tony's - mine's wired the right way round and I just love the sound. My SW seems to have similar the same problems to those that swdave describes with the front truck seeming to hang up. When the front truck derails on a sharp curve or turnout, (and if of course if it doesn't short out the rails) the loco looses all power - even though the rear truck is still on the track. Once its rerailed it goes through its start up sounds sequence again.

It also has a tendancy to just stop for no reason - I had put this down to my layouts dirty rails (I've just finished doing some ballasting on one section of the layout and it needs an extra clean), but my P2K Alco switchers and GP7 have no problem with the same piece of track I'm begining to wonder ....[sigh]

[Anonymous]

Check the height of the coupler trip pin.

[Anonymous]

i almost bought one of those at a swap meet this weekend. Reading this im glad i didnt.

[dazzar]

Received mine yesterday. Running nicely, no problem with derailing or running in reverse directions. A little noisey at full throtle with sound off, but may require a little lube and running in. Manufactured in China. It is SW7 Phase 11 UP.
Most happy with mine.

[TBat55]

dazzar, does yours have volume adjustment with a magnet or with a screwdriver?

[dazzar]

TBat55, mine does have the magnetic wand.

[Anonymous]

I think I may have spotted a reason for one of the BLI switcher's problems; the fault with the front truck derailing. I dissassembled my undec loco to have a better look and ran some tests: I checked the wheels - in gauge, the truck frame is not twisted (as someone suggested) it sits square on a sheet of glass, the coupler trip pin matches the Kadee height gauge.

However, the wire used to connect the truck to the PCB is heavy gauge. Its miles heavier than P2K or Atlas use (for example) and not very flexible - I wonder if this is because the loco will be drawing loads (comparitively) of current due to the sound chip?

Anyway - the rear truck wires have suficient room to move around and don't get caught up on anything as there is space inside at the cab end, but the front trucks wires are squeezed in under the speaker. This makes the front truck have a tendancy to push down at the back (up at the front) and therefore derail when running forwards.

I will be breaking out the soldering iron and replacing the heavy gauge wire to see if that improves matters.

In one of the other threads on the BLI switchers someone said the speaker enclosure is the black box in the cab - well it isn't on mine! The tiny speaker is sqeezed into the hood at the front of the loco, the black box in the cab houses a secondary PCB with the reversing light and cab light LEDs on it. It would be fairly straightforward to remove it and add better cab detail.