Lionel TMCC Dash 9 Smoke Unit Regulator Problem

UPDATE: So it turns out that it was the regulator, and I had a professional replace it. The smoke unit turns on and off fine now. Sometimes it might go off while running but I just hit AUX1 and 9 to bring it back, that's pretty uncommon though. The engine has always been a bit 'quirky' but nothing that causes any problems.

The regulators are a high failure item.   Lionel advised to change over the 6 OHM resistor to an 8 OHM resistor to take some pressure off the regulator.

I have done this on several engines and once the regulator and resistor were changed...things operated very well.

Now saying this....I would not run this engine with the smoke on high for hours at a train show.   For normal everyday use this modification has worked well for me.

Ask your Tech if he changed the resistor.

The regulators are a problem-plagued item for TMCC especially.  Mike Reagan used to recommend deep-sixing the regulator and changing the resistor to a 27 ohm unit and just connecting directly to the smoke output of the R2LC.  He may have been on to something.

FWIW, I've gotten a number of new regulators directly from Lionel, and when I put them on my test stand, they still aren't consistent in their operation!  IMO, this was just a poor design.  The modular Legacy also used a similar regulator, those seem to have been revamped and tend to work much better.  One of the additional things they did for Legacy is heatsink the triac properly to the chassis, for TMCC they just wrapped it in with the board.  However, swapping any 6 ohm resistors for 8 ohms is recommended in any of these you find.

I can confirm that my tech did indeed swap the resistor. The regulator and smoke board were both bad, apparently so it wasn't a big deal for both. the important thing is that the smoke unit works now. It still acts a little odd. For example, when just idling, smoke pours out but when running there's hardly any. I checked the input voltage to make sure nothing was browning out. Pressing AUX1 8 and then AUX1 9 seems to reset the smoke unit and it smokes ok. Weird but I can deal with it. I know there's meant to be some variation in the smoke level (more when you accelerate). it just seems odd that the exhaust from the unit is warm while running, yet no smoke until I "remind" the unit to start. You weren't kidding about those regulators being a bit weird, were you! 

That's a fairly common complaint.  For some reason, some of the smoke regulators will do exactly that, run for a spell and then just taper off with the output voltage.  Like I said, crappy design.

if you know of any aftermarket regulators made by someone else as upgrades, that would be cool.

Never heard of one, I doubt they exist.

Sounds like an opportunity???

Maybe, but not for me.   My plate is full.