AC Commander Question

AC commander using a DC motor?

I don't see how connecting a can motor would have killed the AC commander.  I can clearly see how it wouldn't have worked!

The obvious thing to look at is the wiring to the motor, and also check to see if the motor actually runs just wired up without the AC Commander. 

I will direct wire the loco bypassing the AC commander to see what happens.  This was a working loco so the motor should work but let's confirm that.  And yes Carl, the original owner I guess made a mistake, stuff happens.  Let's see what happens in a conventional environment.  If the motor works then I will re-connect the board to see if my original connections were loose.  If the motor does not work, that I can fix since I have a spare.  Stay tuned.

thanks for the feedback.

Henry

Update:  Motor works just fine, back to the drawing board.

The most common failure of the AC Commander is the output drivers, those can be replaced.

The AC commander can be configured to drive DC  motors by removing a jumper adding a bridge rectifier.

Was this tried by the previous owner?  What version AC commander is it? 

Carl, are you just saying to pop out that jumper and drop the bridge in?  I always thought the PIC processor would have different programming for the DC version.

John, Now you have ventured into uncharted territory for me.  What I plan to do is methodically re-do everything to see if I erred during the install.  Should that fail then other alternatives will be considered.  Carl the board reads AC/DC commander v5.2.  There is no bridge rectifier on it as expected.

One question for you both, in the middle of the board are a pair of jumpers, both are aligned towards the 5 screw connectors, or to put it another way away from the 7 connections for the lights, cmd/pgm connections.  Is it possible these jumpers are not in the correct position?  

Just exploring possibilities at this point.

Thanks Henry

Here's a brand new AC Commander hot off the presses.  Note they aren't putting the version sticker on the board anymore, so we'll have to guess at the version.   I believe JP2 is always in the position shown.

It says AC/DC so I assumed the firmware was the same.

Carl, the proof would be in the running.   I know they use the same board, but a few years back when I asked the question of ERR, they stated the firmware was different.  Other than the missing bridge and the jumper, they certainly do look the same.

Ok, the picture is an accurate representation of what I have in hand.  Later this evening I will give it another shot to see if I made a mistake the first time.  Stay tuned.

Update:  Mixed results.  Disconnected everything, methodically re-connected everything with the instructions directly in front of me.  Placed loco on the track, went through the loco address signing procedure because you never know, still had no positive results.  The cat decided to do something that required temporary evacuation of the train room, leaving the loco on the track powered on.  When the olfactory senses recovered I gave it one more try and we had movement although it stopped about 2 feet down the track.  So now I am more than likely dealing with signal loss or a weak connection.  Headlight remains on so it isn't power loss.  The quest continues as soon as I relocate the litter box.