QUOTE (harkins77 @ 16 Aug 2008, 03:24) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Ok so I spoke too soon.
Was running my renumbered 60096 which I chipped with a TCS M1 decoder and everything was running perfectly. The loco was running for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden the loco stopped. The loco's lights were still on so thought that it had just stalled on a part of the track but when I took the body off there was no sign of the decoder then I realised the decoder was still there but literally welded to the plastic body. I managed to carefully remove the chip from the body and after a lot cursing and swearing because the chip had slightly damaged the grille area on the roof. I had a look round and even though I had gone round the chassis with tape to try and protect it from any chance of a short one of the motor tabs coming from the circuit board had touched the chassis and blown the decoder. I haven't had a chance to test the loco to make sure no permanent damage has been done to the motor or circuit board but after speaking to a friend who this has happened to he assures me that everything should be ok but to just make sure when I get my replacement decoder from TCS under the Goof Proof warranty that I check check and check 2 more times to make sure nothing will move.
I have taken the steps though to make sure none of the other locos I did the other day have worked loose and suffer the same fate but you never know and I will just have to keep an eye on the rest of them every so often.
My first install on a Farish 66 had this problem - putting the body back on pushed the PCB down so that one of the solder blobs touched the chassis. My solution is to tape a piece of Plastikard to the top of the chassis next to the slot where the motor contacts are - the extra thickness compared with tape on is own makes accidental contact much less likely. You should also put a bit of heatshrink round the motor contact itself if this isn't already provided (I think it is on the 60 but not the 66).
Was running my renumbered 60096 which I chipped with a TCS M1 decoder and everything was running perfectly. The loco was running for about 15 minutes and then all of a sudden the loco stopped. The loco's lights were still on so thought that it had just stalled on a part of the track but when I took the body off there was no sign of the decoder then I realised the decoder was still there but literally welded to the plastic body. I managed to carefully remove the chip from the body and after a lot cursing and swearing because the chip had slightly damaged the grille area on the roof. I had a look round and even though I had gone round the chassis with tape to try and protect it from any chance of a short one of the motor tabs coming from the circuit board had touched the chassis and blown the decoder. I haven't had a chance to test the loco to make sure no permanent damage has been done to the motor or circuit board but after speaking to a friend who this has happened to he assures me that everything should be ok but to just make sure when I get my replacement decoder from TCS under the Goof Proof warranty that I check check and check 2 more times to make sure nothing will move.
I have taken the steps though to make sure none of the other locos I did the other day have worked loose and suffer the same fate but you never know and I will just have to keep an eye on the rest of them every so often.
My first install on a Farish 66 had this problem - putting the body back on pushed the PCB down so that one of the solder blobs touched the chassis. My solution is to tape a piece of Plastikard to the top of the chassis next to the slot where the motor contacts are - the extra thickness compared with tape on is own makes accidental contact much less likely. You should also put a bit of heatshrink round the motor contact itself if this isn't already provided (I think it is on the 60 but not the 66).
