I was having intermittent light cut outs, so I reflowed four points on the tether board in the loco. While I was doing it the black wire came unsoldered and I reattached it. Now when I run the engine everything works, light don't cut out, but the smoke unit heater isn't working. The fan is running fine. I checked the purple and brown wires for kinks or breaks and couldn't find any, and all the wires seem secure in their board sockets. Any ideas?
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Additionally, I tested for current going into the heating resistors and there isn't any.
If you have 4 wires connected to the 4-pin socket on the board, check continuity between pins 1 and 3, with the tender connected, to the pads on the smoke heater. Also be sure the smoke heater measures 8 ohms (two 16 ohm resistors wired parallel). If you have continuity, take the board to an ASC to have it tested. You may have fried the FET on the board which a competent ASC can fix.
Would resoldering / reflowing points on the tether board cause this 4-pin board to blow? I thought I might have accidentally bridged two of the points with solder at one point, but literally everything else on the engine is working except the heating elements.
It's likely. If you don't have output between pins 1 & 3, the FET or trace on the board is blown. If the rear coupler isn't working, the FET is likely OK, but the trace is blown, but there is a one-time fix to restore PV to the board.
Just tested the rear coupler and it works fine. So I corrupted the trace on the tether board when I was trying to reflow the solder? What's involved in fixing the trace?
If the couplers work, the trace is probably OK. Likely fried the FET for smoke heat. You really need to pull the board and bring it to someone that has a PS2 test fixture. Assuming you have a 3v board (AA battery pack), the following applies.
Did smoke work before the reflow? Can be a harness with bad wire for smoke heat. The smoke fet is pretty hefty. G
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