How do I? - TAS Smoke unit and ERR CC

I've never used that smoke unit, but from the pictures it's clear that there doesn't seem to be any logic in the unit.  It's not clear what the silver ring around the smoke output is.

The two wires coming direct from the motor would go to the brush inputs.  You can trace the wires from the two connections to the resistor pretty easily, it looks like they go to the red and black wires coming from the circuit board.

I have no idea what the function of the middle two wires are that go to the silver ring.

The instructions for the TAS EOB board wiring this fan only mentions the fan and resistor connections, they don't say anything about the other wires.

I look forward to hearing from someone that has used this fan as to what the silver ring and it's wiring do.

For the Cruise Commander, you have a small issue, you don't have a source of 5V power for the fan.  You'll have to supply that.  I'm assuming that's what the TAS circuit board does for you.

I believe the the blue and yellow are for a sensor that TAS used in case the unit ran out of smoke fluid and over heated, thus shutting it down.

Milwrd

The TAS smoke unit looks identical to the Lionel fan driven smoke unit, part #610-8057-200. This might be a worthy replacement.

Just got off the phone with ERR and the Lioenl smoke unit will not work with the cruise commander either.

I would try and verify the voltage rating of the DC motor. Most run on 5-9V DC. You could make a simple voltage dropping circuit using a couple of 1/2 watt resistors and tap into the main drive motor circuit. As you increase the throttle the voltage would increase to the fan motor but at a lower value. The fan motor only draws about 30ma so you shouldn't overtax the the drive triacs. Also swap out the resistor for a 8 ohm Lionel smoke resistor and connect to the smoke triac (pin 5,6) on the R2LC. That way you can turn it off with the handheld.

Pete

Truthfully, I'd first make sure the smoke unit had a resistor in the 20-27 ohm range.  If not, I'd recommend trying a 22 ohm resistor.

For the fan, don't try to run it on more than 5 volts.  Since this is command, I'd just take a diode, a 220uf 35V cap, and a three terminal regulator like the LM7805L and create a regulated 5V to run the fan.  Drive the input to the diode from the smoke output of the Cruise Commander and you'll have the fan running when the smoke unit it on.

If you want variable smoke, that's a bit more complicated, as you'd most likely have to vary the power to the smoke resistor to accomplish that properly.

Makes perfect sense, I wondered what that could be!

John,

 27 ohm resistors are used with units tied directly to the track typically in conventional starter set engines. 8 Ohm resistors are used in TMCC applications. Smoke Triacs only out put ~12 volts max PWM

Pete

I believe an 8 ohm resistor in the smoke unit will be too much for the R2LC smoke triac.  The 8 ohm resistors are in units with the separate smoke regulator board.