K line K4 with cruise control Motor contol board replacement with Lionel Parts

If you have a non cruise DCDR board you should be able to use it. Make sure you wire the DCDR directly to the motor. Right now the motor is connected to the tach board . Do you really want to replace it with Odyssey? If you do you would have to order a DCDS motor driver along with a new flywheel and magnetic pick up. Even at half price it will be more than an ERR Cruise M at list price and a significant hassle to install the tach sensor and flywheel.

IF the engine works with a DCDR then it will with a Cruise M

Pete

Norton -- thanks for the help - I only have donors with odyssey... is that ok?

I was going to use the existing plug in connectors that are supplied, sorry for the question but what is a tach board?

I would like to replace it with a board that is  the easiest solution for plug and play...   If figured a Lionel driver board would give me that?

Sounds like if the motor needs to be replaced and I do not wish to do that ... I should be looking only at an ERR cruise commander M?

Thanks  Pete.

Jim, I didn't realize you had Odyssey boards already. The tach sensor is the board under the flywheel. Odyssey uses a magnet on the flywheel. K-Line Cruise uses an optical sensor. The boards under the flywheel are different for each. The advantage of ERR Cruise M is you can leave either sensor in place and just replace the motor driver board. Otherwise you either have to swap motors or swap tach sensors and tach boards. 

Are you coming to York? If so, I could give you a DCDR to try. That would at least verify the motor is OK. Or you could just hook up an HO DC Power Pack to the motor leads to verify the motor is working.

Pete

Got it, that is great information. Looks like I will pick up a ERR cruise commander M.

I am going to really miss York this October... thank you for the offer. I will verify the motor with the  DC power pack.

Is the cruise commander M easy to install into a K line engine?

The Cruise M should be easy on this engine. The only K-Line engine that required a bit of surgery was the PRR B6 0-6-0.Pete

The one issue with certain K-Line models was they powered the markers, MARS lights, etc. from the cruise board.  I believe the chuff was routed through at least one of them as well.  Those could take some extra work.

Thanks John, I am  ordering the Cruise commander M for this loco. It just makes sense. Will I have to worry about that mysterious wire solder to the motor tach board?

I believe you are correct on the marker lamps, not sure about the chuff. How are these handled? Should I purchase the regular cruise commander?

You can use the CC-M, you just have to adjust certain things. 

The markers can be powered from the CC-M, it has drive for two marker/class lamps.  If the chuff is generated with the cruise module, you'll have to add a chuff switch of some kind.  Of course, I'm partial to the solution I designed, but a reed switch and magnets work as well.  The mysterious wire on the tach board is history, you don't need any connections to the old tach at all.  Obviously, for a steamer, the flashing ditch lights might not be all that useful.

Cruise Commander M J4 Connector pins

J, its been a while but I believe the motor wires go to the tach board which has contacts to which the motor leads are soldered to. I am fairly certain they do not go to any other place on the tach board except the motor leads so forget what I said about removing the motor wires from the tach board. The only time you would do that is if you could actually remove the tach board but since it requires pulling the flywheel, just leave it in place. It should be obvious when you look at the motor.

Pete

Great  info - thanks, well put my order in to ERR in Ca. I ordered on extra just in case.... so we will see when they come in.

 Looks like what happened to my Berkshire. Naturally it happened on initial powerup with a guest present. Sure did smoke. I ordered up a Cruise M from ERR and a Chuff Generator from Hennings. I built up a 5v power supply from parts I ordered from All Electronics. Followed John's instructions and and basically just soldered the parts together and wrapped everything in shrink wrap. I usually put these things on the shelf when this happens. Had some free time and figured I'd give it a shot as I'm still learning how to do things like this. It was up and running in a few weeks. I'm guessing where this engine has cruise the chuffs are generated through this board. The ERR board doesn't have this feature. If your engine has a switch. You will only need the Cruise board to be up and running. If you want 4 chuffs you will need John's board. 

 Below is the install. Where the K-Line boards reader is on the motor. I trimmed that off with a hacksaw type blade in an X Acto knife.  thats where the chuff generator now resides. I was able to tuck the 5v setup under the driver board.

Gosh, from that picture, it looks like it's still on fire!

Definitely wasn't one of my better shots. Just did a quick reference as to what it looked like. I've got a few K-line steamers and this probably won't be the last one I do. 

 John, I really hate doing the reed switch and magnet thing. That engine would probably still be sitting on the shelf if it wasn't for the Chuff Generator. Thank you for a great and much needed product.

Dave, I'm glad the C-G worked out for you.  The reason it exists is I hate doing the magnets and reed switches too, and they were always a PITA to get perfect chuffs with.  Go around a corner and the axle could move just enough to make it skip a chuff!   Of course, some drivers were so close to the frame that the magnets didn't fit on the rim, so I'd try to stick them inside the wheel, what a chore! 

I thought about something like this for several years, I don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

The more I read the more I think I am in for more fun! Well its an adventure.

I took another look at the locomotive last night and I cannot tell if the chuffs are in the board or not. The old board has 4 plugs. A 3 way - not sure where they go, a 4 way lights maybe? a cruise on/off , and of course the main AC input. 

I looked at it again and just notice this engine has the old mechanical puffer smoke unit that looks like a large tea kettle. May as well look at upgrading this as well.  Hmm now I am wondering John what do you recommend I should buy to upgrade besides the ERR board that would make it state of the art?

The K4 is a keeper, the smoke defector shields make it unique and the sounds are fantastic.

I am pretty sure none of the engines with a puffer unit have the chuff generated on the board but then I have never worked on this particular engine.

I am guessing this has two chuffs per rev??

Pete

The chuff switch should be connected to the lever that controls the puffer, Pete's right.  If you look down near the frame, you'll find the switch there.

Obviously, if this were one I was doing, the smoke puffer and chuff switch would be gone and I'd be installing an MTH smoke unit, as well as the Super-Chuffer and the Chuff-Generator.  I would probably also consider my little LED Flickering Firebox Board, it gives a really nice firebox effect.

Curious, John, why the MTH smoke unit over a Lionel fan driven smoke unit?

It's easier to fit in a lot of the time, it's a bit smaller than the standard Lionel unit.  It also pours out smoke, and since I'm the smoke man, people expect a lot of smoke!