[zmil]

Hi All

With a convenient present of some heat shrink I have been attempting to fix some Loco's
that were not working correctly and at the same time do some DCC Conversions

Working on a Old Fleischmann 1380 (only made between 1959-65) That the previous owner had modified with red LED's for tail lighting (none of which worked anymore ) The Loco ran OK and the original lighting was still in place and also not working.

I decided to replace the original 2 bulbs per end with LED's as well.

After pulling out a couple of circuit boards and capacitors etc I was ready to begin
I established that the LED's still worked then made up a loom with the Rear headlight and front Tail lights Resistors in place Blue white and yellow wires same with the Front end .
Everything was measured to fit Heatshink fitted over the joins and holding wires in place. Made sure the wiring was going to fit tidily . Out with the M1 decoder

I separated the White Blue and Yellow wires , cut them to length and tinned the ends , Put the heat shrink tubes on the wires , Soldered all the joints . Used the heat gun on the shrink

The loom looked very tidy considering the amount of cabling in it!

Next step, tested for placement again everything fit , excellent!

Now wire up the motor

Cut the Orange wire to length - Where's the Grey Wire?

There was no Grey wire on the decoder!!!

Cut open the heatshrink , cut the joints out , strip and tin the wires Again!

Lucky I had a spare decoder

Here is a picture of the 2nd go

That is the second decoder I have had to send back , that I did not destroy!

But the Loco now works fine - Born in 62 Reborn as DCC in 2008

Regards Zmil

 

[upnick]

Great conversion Zmil, this happened to me with an M1, but the blue wire was missing

like you i had another decoder and had not started soldering the first which came in for a 45 XX which doesnt require lighting of course.

Think they must have both been made on a Friday afternoon

 

[zmil]

QUOTE (upnick @ 9 Sep 2008, 03:59) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Think they must have both been made on a Friday afternoon

That or a Monday Morning!

After cleaning the wheels and contacts (and New brushes) this Loco runs really well

But I have discovered something about the early Fleischmann motors.They are very robust and a simple construction
a ring magnet goes 360 degrees around the motor and they have 3 coils at 120 degrees
Like Richard wrote earlier "not the best motors" but these were produced in this form from 1958 onwards
So you can convert nearly every Loco the same way

Put on a Fleischmann Insulated back Plate (I got mine from Brian at Euroscale Models)
and then rewire

But some of the old Motors , do not like the BEMF - It could be that the coils or magnets are not 100%
On very slow (crawling) speed they move forward in little surges

Turning the BEMF off and adjusting the Dither (TCS decoders) they do run at very slow (crawling ) speed very smoothly

It does not happen with all the Motors , just some of them
Or it is more noticeable in some of them

The Later motors are much better

Regards Zmil

 

[SRman]

What can happen with modern decoders is the wires simply drop off at the soldered joints since the newer lead-free solders required by the EU are rather brittle.