PS1 smoke unit

I have popped a cap...it was like a firecracker..it was on sonething else..

Getting ps2 board from g..so will be building one.. Will keep site posted..

Thanks...for everyones help

If you go back to my post with the parts, I gave you the test sequence.  The Square rectifier takes in AC power and makes DC power.  The DC goes to the 5V regulator to drive the fan motor, the + goes to the resistor.   The rest of the circuit kicks in the second element or shorts it as discussed.

So you power it with AC through the normal connector and see if you have +DC voltage at output of rectifier.  It is marked.  You then check for 5V at fan motor.

If all that is good, one element at least has voltage and it should make smoke as long as the element reads 16ohms.  If not, the element is open, or a trace is burned, and that should be obvious.  After that, we look for the other element coming on at high voltage.

You can't operate this at the voltages you initially wanted to though.  The 5V reg will fail and at some point other components also since they are not rated for that kind of voltage.  Including the elements.  G

Thanks g..

I bought 2 buck converters. 1.2 - 35v. 3 amps .i will set one at 5v.motor..the other.16v smoke resistors....think that is what stan mentioned..

I'd be thinking more like 13-14 volts for the smoke resistors.  16 ohms is 8 watts, that's going to be a SMOKER at that level.

If you parallel those two smoke resistors, you'll have 8 ohms, then you can use a single buck converter at around 6-7 volts to produce nice smoke.  The smoke motor draws about 50 ma at 5V, so a series 39 ohm resistor to the motor at 1/4W would be just about right to give it 4.5-5.0 volts at the 6-7 volts on the resistors.  You only need one power supply.  You could also use three diodes in series to drop the power into the proper range for the smoke motor using the same logic.

thanks john.

Smoke unit bought off ebay...notice motor..has stand offs..other motor on gs..ps2 board.from my ps1..no stand offs..i did enlarge the holes on ps1 ebay..were smaller than my ps1..

The capacitor on ebay ps1 is loose..need to resolder it..i think its a rebuilt.

Nothing unusual about that, some of the smoke units had that construction.  I actually preferred it, less chance of soaking the motor with smoke fluid.

question, do I need a diode in line for motor,  that gets contact from chugger switch?,   the switch is ground,  chugger works off ac,  contact for chugger makes contact with contact for smoke, make - break ,  lionel  made a 2 point cam for chugger that fits on axle,  I use a gear clamp,  I did make the cam, but easier  to use clamp, ,,I guess I can use a capacitor , non polarized?,,

If you're powering the motor from the chuff switch, you can not connect the chuff switch to ANYTHING ELSE!  The full-wave bridge on the PS/1 smoke unit makes any DC ground at a different potential than the frame ground.  Before I built my Super-Chuffer, I used to use a DPDT signal relay to provide two isolated contact sets from the chuff switch, one for the motor and one for the input to the sound card.

Here is how i broke contact for motor..i put diode in.cause i was not sure if ac would get to motor..the diode would get hot. It shrank the heat srink tubing..putting relay in would solve that problem..single pole.

Thanks john

The components should NEVER get hot, if they do, something is wrong!

that's when I was running 34v,  plus volts,,,forgot about that,

Well ..smoking...i put reverse unit in it sucks volts.  Need to run 18v just to run moderately...is pittman to much for it. Any other reverse units out there..

That puny little reverse unit isn't suitable for a Pittman motor, you need something considerably more robust!   For a large locomotive, consider something like the Dallee 12A Reverse Unit.  You're way beyond the capabilities of that little guy, I'm surprised it's working at all!

thanks john,,,

Reverse unit on the way..

Was wondering why smoke went down..lousy rebuild. . that's ebay...regulator fell out...it maybe good..but i have a boat load of them now.. Putting in new one..what else is going to fall out....no buck converters yet..think they are comming from china. Saids tracking...

Q2 is a Transistor, not a regulator.  Something's still not right if that's getting hot enough to melt it's solder!

something is up,,, replaced transistor,  looks like a reg,, smoke worked then quit,,,,,,motor works, nothing is burned,  I am sorta thinking when I had that reverse unit in  the ps1 got over loaded,  but the capacitor came un soldered again,  they say the ps2-3 is better I agree,  reading thru the post,  even if  pnp quit should still get smoke,  going out to a surplus place to see if they have socket I can solder in so all I need to do it pull pnp in and out, to change,,,maybe change the whole board like that,, 

ok,  voodoo,  it working now, but at 16v, below 16v no smoke,  motor runs,, the motor does not stay at a constant  speed it spools up and down,  aircraft term,,  with voltage,,,

You have some component issues with the smoke board.  If the motor is changing speeds, I'd probably look at the bridge rectifier and filter cap first.  The smoke motor really just depends on the bridge, filter cap, and the 5V regulator.  The fact that you get no smoke below 15-16 volts suggests something has cooked, those smoke units normally run down to 5-6 volts AC.  The Q2 melting itself out of the board screams a problem in that regulator/switching circuit that feeds the smoke resistors.

thanks john,  I dread that,  un soldering those pnp are a b,   when I press on capacitor to make  contact with the board, the motor speeds up,

Might be time to cut your losses and find a working PS/1 smoke unit.  Or, perhaps send that one to GGG, I'm sure he can get it running properly.

Series...going with ps2.. .i fixed?. Ps1 but over 12v the big transistor and bridge get hot.

I put one on the bench and connect it to 16 volts, the bridge and transistor are hardly warmer than room temperature.

john that's how I tested it,  using dc, Q2, stays cool,  but bridge gets hot, I put my finger on it,, using ac  those  2 get hot, the motor stays at 5v,  5.02,,,, I did not replace the diode, or  R1, R2,

Q2 might be getting heat from bridge,,

ok,  running PS1 on track,  below 14v, no smoke, , so , my thought is , to replace zenner  diode  with a regular  diode, so resistors are in series,  1 resistor I get no smoke,  I have the PS2 ready to drop in, but want to get this PS1 right,  the dallee, #1400 , E unit,  is great, they want a heat sink,  which was no problem, I might get one of their whistles,,,, 

The Zener diode has an important function, you do NOT want to replace it with a standard diode, that will break the regulator circuit!

Thanks. John..but no problems yet..holds at 5v.

There was a post about traction. Can't find it. At 14v had some wheel slip. So at 10v ..none. Not bad.those are usa g cars. They made trucks wide enough to spread wheels .for std..i have 6 more cars to change...i will probably double head this with a 392e...i would say those usa cars equal min. of 6 sta cars..those usa cars weigh a few lbs each.  make that 9 more cars to change,

PS 2  series  resistors

Bucks arrived..from germany. Over a month..

What is the black part. 470 on top. What type is the LM..

The lm 317 i bought for 7 bucks here. Is working ok.so. i will leave it for now.

The black part is a ferrite core inductor, the LM2596 is a switching regulator chip.  These should run a lot cooler than an LM317 based solution.

Thanks .john

The 317. Is being used for smoke motor. Not much of a load.

It's probably up to that task.