M-1 turbine smoked where it's not supposed to

It will use a PS/2 upgrade.  I don't know about the sound file to match.

If it's just the lighting board, I'd consider fixing it rather than upgrading it.  Do you run DCS or just conventional?

I looked, and there was a PS/2 version, so the sound file would be available.

Which model is this?  Is this a PS/1 or the PS/2 version?  I'm guessing PS/1 since it has the 9V battery.

You should be able to get the constant voltage lighting board fixed, but if you want to go for PS/2, I'd probably toss that board and just use LED lighting with the PS/2, I like the look a lot better than the 6V incandescent bulbs.  They do offer a way to use the constant lighting board, but if it's already bad, might as well leave it out.

The PS-2 sound file is available for this, I had mine upgraded years ago.

Scott

Yep Scott, I found the PS/2 version with the sound file, so that's not an issue.  Should be a pretty straight-forward upgrade.

Diesel kit.  Easy job, go for it.

Almost done, have been working on this one a little each night the last few days.  Got it together for a test and everything worked.  Downloaded the sound file, first time for that, and it worked on the first try, pretty jazzed about that.  Only problem I have now is the motors aren't working well together.  They are both going the correct direction but at low speed its jerky.  I can see the rear motor is pushing harder than the front.  The front has the tach strip on it and appears to be not at a steady speed.  Any ideas?  By the way martys right easy deal if you use some patience.  focus on one item at a time otherwise it could be overwhelming.

For the jerky motor, try first manually turning the flywheel through at least a couple of complete rotations of the drive wheels and see if you feel any binding.  Try it in both directions. 

If not, my next test is to remove the motor plug and connect a bench DC supply to the motor and run it at very low voltage, around a volt to start.  Crank it up slowly and see if it start running smooth or is jumpy.  Do the same thing with the properly working motor and see if you see any difference.

Obviously, one of the first things to check is if the motor mounting screws and the motor mount screws are tight.  You'll have to remove the motor to get to the two motor mounting screws.  I've found a number of these loose, as well as the bottom screw that secures the motor mount.

I think that the PS1 smoke unit circuit board has some electronic doodads that occasionally go up in smoke; when you convert it to PS2 you will modify the original by isolating the motor from the heater units. To save expenses, make sure the smoke unit works, both the fan and heaters. 

If the smoke resistors are intact and the fan motor still functions, that's all you need of the PS/1 smoke unit for a PS/2 upgrade.  You slice off all the other electronics, or at least slice their connections.

I like to try to find a RailKing Imperial or a Premier sound file to enable more of the features if I can.  For the Premier, sometimes it'll change the calibration of the scale MPH.  If that's important to you, you can use a custom tach strip to restore the proper calibration.

As long as the speeds are satisfactory, you're in the tall cotton.