MTH Dreyfuss Hudson 20-3045-1 Problem

you are gonna have to take the boiler casting off and see where the carnage occurred.....that's not sounding good....

Not an expert by any stretch, but sounds like a capacitor took a hit. I think that has a 5volt board. I have several 5v locos but have never had 1 go bad.(yet)

I agree on the above post by JINI5.  I had the same exact thing happen on a few of my 5volt ps2 boards.   Sounds like the blown cap.  

It has a 5V board, and now I suspect it has a small pile of useless plastic and silicon.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

It has a 5V board, and now I suspect it has a small pile of useless plastic and silicon.

Don't forget the ultra tiny bit of GOLD in them boards.

Correct me if I am wrong.  With all the talk on the OGR Forum about dumping the white battery in any MTH engine and replacing it with a new green battery or BCR,  I bet you did not see any of it.  That battery is 14 years old.  Was this a fleabay queen?   I am with the guys on the cap taking a hit.    I hate to see any electronics ruined by human error.   Part throttle on a ZW is not a lot of voltage.  I know guys worship them.  I am not a fan of using any transformer that was made in the middle of the last century.  You charged it for several minutes?????    In those several minutes you could have opened the tender and installed a new green battery or BCR and this post would not exist.  I actually have that exact engine and I pulled the 5V board and installed a 3V board.    I am sorry for your loss.  This is a good post for people to read.  I still have my 5V board in the shop.  

The Dryfuss seem to have a high failure rate along with the FEF Northern.  Needs to be upgraded with a PS-32 board installed in the engine to retain all features.  G

SXE60, sometimes only the cap blows and nothing else. I've seen them blow even with a good battery. If your up for a challenge, purchase a new cap of the same value and use it to perform a simple test. You can usually try this leaving the board hooked up in the train. First, remove the battery and properly dispose of it, if it's white one. If it's green, charge it up. Second, locate the blown cap and take note of which lead was marked negative and the position it was soldered  into the board. Then cut away the tin housing of the cap with mini wire cutters and remove it along with the guts of the cap. You'll be left with two stems sticking up from the board. Third, using mini "insulated" alligator clip test leads, clip on the new cap to the stems on the board. Make sure you clip the negative cap lead to the negative stem on the board. Last, install the battery, put the train on the tracks and see if it will start up. If it does, your in luck and you could have someone install the new cap for you. If you see more smoke, the board had additional damage from the cap blowing. Good Luck.    PS: The PRR switcher pictured was only the cap and is still running strong.

Dave, thanks much for the detailed info. My question is, why did a big cloud of smoke come out from the boiler area around the drive wheels, if the cap in the tender failed? Did it allow full power to the smoke generator?

That would be because the PS/2 boards are in the boiler for this model.

No difference, same procedure, just detach the board and flip the board over to access the cap. Try to leave the plugs hooked up and hook up the tender before you start it. All you want to do when ready is see if it will start. Don't try to move it in this condition.

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

Correct me if I am wrong.  With all the talk on the OGR Forum about dumping the white battery in any MTH engine and replacing it with a new green battery or BCR,  I bet you did not see any of it.  That battery is 14 years old.  Was this a fleabay queen?   I am with the guys on the cap taking a hit.    I hate to see any electronics ruined by human error.   Part throttle on a ZW is not a lot of voltage.  I know guys worship them.  I am not a fan of using any transformer that was made in the middle of the last century.  You charged it for several minutes?????    In those several minutes you could have opened the tender and installed a new green battery or BCR and this post would not exist.  I actually have that exact engine and I pulled the 5V board and installed a 3V board.    I am sorry for your loss.  This is a good post for people to read.  I still have my 5V board in the shop.  

You right I obviously missed the white/green discussion. I'm well aware of PS1 Battery problems, but so far never had a PS2/3 problem until now. My ZW happens to be a  current model with 180 watt power supplies. I am old school and have shied away from digital control.  I've never had a problem with 14 year old brand "L" engines. Oh, and yes it was an Fleabay Queen. I'm retired and will be 84 in October, unfortunately I can't pay a grand + for a new engine that I'd like to have. By the way my first train was a Green Marx UP streamliner for Christmas 1936.  I can still recall the ozone smell it created.

Bang + white smoke sounds like capacitor going bye-bye to me as well.  

I'm afraid even painting the loco for Amtrak won't help. 

Mitch

sxe60 posted:

By the way my first train was a Green Marx UP streamliner for Christmas 1936.  I can still recall the ozone smell it created.

I'll bet you can still smell the "electrical component frying" smell that this one created as well.

SXE60, understood.  Glad to hear you are using the 180 brick.  I am a huge fan.   Like George (GGG) stated, that is one that goes often.   Give the cap a look.  I would consider sending the board to George.  Keep us posted and good luck.

Well, as suggested , I pulled the Hudson shell and found the biggest capacitor with #4 marked on what was left of the top had blown it's insulation onto the gear box. So now I need to find a circuit board repair guy as I don't feel qualified to install a replacement and installing an PS3 upgrade seems like overkill as i don't operate in DCS mode.

SXE60, do what Marty said, contact George (GGG).  If anyone can save your board it will be George.  If George can save it, make sure you get a new battery.  I have this same locomotive.  I changed the battery about 5 years ago and have never had a problem.

If George can not fix it, it can not be fixed.

I sent my PS2 Dreyfuss  to GGG. Bad board. He installed PS-32. Now it runs like a brand new Loco. Thanks George.

Well, I took a gamble and followed the advice of Dave Zucal about just replacing the blown cap and it worked. Now the engine runs fine. Dave knows his trains and is aces in my book.

I've replaced a few of those large caps before the board blows.  If I see any signs of leakage or bulging, I pop a new one in.  Also, every one of the bad ones I've seen are the WINCAP brand.  That being the case, if I see one of those, I replace it even if it looks good!

I am surprised that after it blew you could still recover it, nice job.

sxe60 posted:

Well, I took a gamble and followed the advice of Dave Zucal about just replacing the blown cap and it worked. Now the engine runs fine. Dave knows his trains and is aces in my book.

Attaboy!

Mitch