PS2 RK RS3 Shorts out at higher voltage

WowakOGR Forum Member

I just bought a Railking RS3 that was sold as inop /parts only, but out of morbid curiosity I threw it on the test loop. It starts up and idles, but if I roll the voltage up to about 12, the headlight starts to flicker and it pops the breaker. The battery appears to be dead, it doesn't stay on at all when power is interrupted. It's an 8.4v locomotive. It's idling right now at 8vac and hasn't caught fire or exploded. Thoughts?

11/14/143:41 PM

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WowakOGR Forum Member

Update: the battery took enough of a charge to get out of neutral, it runs fwd/reverse as long as I keep the voltage down.

11/14/143:50 PM

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stan2004OGR Forum Member

I'd open it up and pull combinations of the "load" connectors from the PS2 board-set. You may get "lucky" and find a shorted load - 4-wire smoke, 5-wire motor, 12/8-wire lighting-coupler-speaker. The thought being that at low-voltages the electronics can handle the current but falls apart at higher-voltages/currents.

11/14/144:36 PM

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gunrunnerjohnOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

I'd put a new battery into it first.

11/14/146:10 PM

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WowakOGR Forum Member

Put in a known good battery, started up, didn't trip the breaker, got smoke from between the two boards, now it starts up with the bell ringing and won't move despite the light bulbs cycling between fwd and reverse.

11/14/146:25 PM

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RJROGR Forum Member

Being the 8.4 volt loco, I'll bet that the board has failed.

11/14/149:53 PM

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WowakOGR Forum Member

Given the smoke coming out, I'll bet it failed too!

11/14/1410:01 PM

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GGGOGR Forum Member

Well, you should not have done a smoke test. The fact that it was running means the main processors and such were probably good. Sounds like the diodes that convert AC to DC for the chips may have failed. That can be a repairable problem. Once it is pushed to hard you can get AC on the chips and than all bets off. G