Milwaukee H16-44 TMCC with odyssey lurch and non working smoke fan

Its not the triac if you have heat. The motor may be bad or simply stuck or it may be a bad 5V regulator or diode on the fan smoke unit itself. The motor leads should have a connector on it. Either disconnect the motor from the board or unsolder one of the motor leads and connect a 1.5 v battery to it, two 1.5v in series would be better and see if the motor turns. If not remove the circuit board and make sure the fan spins freely. 

As for the lurch, you can replace the motor driver with an ERR Cruise M. I just minimize any lurch by slowly upping the speed. Your call.

Pete

Thanks Pete-

I checked the motor it turns freely, So the diode in on the smoke unit circuit board next to the Triac?

I take it the 5 volt regulator is there also? If I hit the diode with a Digital multi meter what / should I check and at what setting?

I am ordering parts from Lionel so I will just order a newer board from them... question is which board should I order to eliminate the lurch. The part number they have on their website for the R2 board is 691R2LCC08. Will that do it or should I be looking for an R4 board?

Or is the Lurch a problem with the DCDS control board PN 691-DCDS-HM5 ?

J, I will have to check the smoke unit in your engine closer. Usually the TO 92 device is a 5V Regulator that is fed from the R2LC feature pin. Newer engines have an AC regulator. With the shell off and engine on the tracks powered you should be able to tell if there is voltage going to motor and then back track on the board.

The Lurch is due to the DCDS Odyssey motor driver, not the radio board. The DCDS is what gets replaced with an ElectricRR Cruise M.

Pete

Thanks Pete on the smoke unit. I will check it

Is it a direct plug in for the cruise commander M?

Cruise M is a direct plug-in, plus you have to solder one wire.

Its pretty much a direct plug and play. I did one of these engines a few years ago. You have to add one wire for the serial data and may have to modify some wires on the black connector that is used on the DCDS board. If it has 6 places now then two places get tied together. The instructions are very clear and you can download them now from electricrr.com to see what is involved.

Pete

So that begs the question on Lionel's website. Locomotives have the same PN in 2003 and 4 do not have the lurch but the replacement part number is the same from years 2001through 2005. PN 691-DCDS-HM5. Obviously there was an upgrade to the DCDS board but not a PN change? Or was something else changed too?

Lionel did in fact improve Odyssey I in the later years but I still don't think its as smooth as ERR Cruise and I think when you check prices, the Cruise M is a better deal. Also you no longer have to worry about the magnet breaking, at least how it will affect operation. 

Pete

Thanks Pete. I am curious because I just found a Soo Line SD - 40 -2 sitting under the layout with a broken magnet - it will become a donor for a while... And I can fix the Soo line with an ERR board. This unit did not have any lurch issues.

One more question have you ever seen a DCDS unit short out in one direction and not the other? Hence my E5 thread.

I have not seen a DCDS short out in one direction but have seen an open in the path the direction signals take on the driver boards. There is a 4 pin white connector that receives those signals from the R2LC. Two are ground and one each for forward and reverse. Not saying that is the problem but that is a place you can check with an ohmmeter to make sure those four wires are not broken. Just for your information, I am Lionel trained but Lionel service is not my full time job. I build and repair scientific instruments for a living. I have worked on maybe 20-25 Odyssey engines. Other full time guys here have probably worked on hundreds. Maybe they will chime in.

Pete

I am limited in my root cause abilities. But I am going to take everyone's advice on the odyssey lurch and purchase the cruise commander M for both locomotives.  Really appreciate the help.

The Cruise-M is not quite a direct plug-in when you're replacing the Odyssey board.  You should download the instructions from ERR and you can see the process for installing it.  Specifically, you have to deal with the different power connector configuration, and also there is a ground wire that you MUST remove from some Odyssey installations or it'll cook the Cruise-M.  Finally, if markers are driven from the Odyssey board, you may have to adjust those.

For example...

And also...

 I only had one engine that lurched. It was made around the same time as yours. Ended up putting EOB in it. The smoke was pretty much anemic in it.  Usually you can hear the fan motor with the sounds off. Lionel did have an issue around this time with the fan motors impeller being installed backwards on the motors shaft at the factory.  It all worked as far as heating up. Except  the smoke remained in the chamber as the fan even though it was working was not pushing it up.

You can't install the impeller backwards, but you can simply wire the motor with the wrong polarity.  However, even backwards they will push smoke out, just not nearly as strong.

John, my memory after reading your post came back. I remember my Mountain not smoking well. It was the motor running backwards. The fix was to reverse the wires not the impeller. It was a common problem back in the early 2000's.

I do remember a couple of them coming in with the motor running backwards, simple fix as long as you recognized what was wrong.