993 Charging Base Intermittant...fixed.

I had a very similar issue when I first got mine. I could sometimes wiggle the power supply connection and get it going. That stopped working  a several days later. Lionel sent me a new power supply and all was well for quite some time. After some time had passed, I'd say at least a year or more, it happened again. I think it may have happened one or two times since, but it is really very infrequent now. Now it's been quite a while since this has happened so I've sort of forgotten about it and have been hoping for the best.

Anyway, just wondering if I could be having the same problem as you were experiencing? Guess time will tell, but at least you have given me a clue as to what to look for if it does finally quit again. 

Hi RTR12,

Your fault could also be the  joint from the power connector to where it's soldered to the board inside. That was my first guess, but the bridge was it.

Thanks, good idea. Since you said that, I do remember seeing that loose connection problem discussed here sometime ago. Will have to remember that one as well, maybe I'll just check for that pretty soon anyway and not wait for more problems to show up. 

I'm not surprised as a lot of circuits designed for trains are under rated and draw more amps then the circuit was designed for. usually you can just buy a higher amp bridge rectifier like you did and the problem goes away forever! I know anytime I have to change a FET I try to purchase a higher current FET n then no more problems with that circuit!

Alan

cjack posted:

I have had an issue with this 993 base ever since I got it. It would intermittently just go dark. Lionel "fixed" it once but it still went dark. I can't blame them since I opened it a half dozen times only to have it work while I was looking at it. Finally the 3 amp power supply bridge opened up for good and I had a chance to fix it. I only had some flat pack 10 amp bridges from the motor drive boards (?) and bent the leads so it would drop right in. And I was able to screw the original heat sink to it. Works! Yea!

What in the world in the #993 charging base would be drawing 3 amps, or anything close to that? 

I thought that too. But I does also have a heat sink on it. I mostly figured that the bridge was defective in manufacturing somehow. Maybe the 990 draws more and the 993 is just copied that far into the design

Guess I should clarify, I was talking about my 990 base, but the problem was very similar to your 993's as you described. I was reading 993, but brain must have been stuck on 990. 

The 990 and the 993 are basically the same when it comes to the whole thing going dark. It has to do with the input connector solder, the bridge, maybe the resettable fuse (if that's what that yellow thing is), storage capacitor, etc. Then there is a switching supply following the input supply which gets a bit more complicated...but still the same for both bases.

I can see the #990 having a decent current draw, but there's nothing in the #993 to need that kind of power.