RCMC Magic Smoke

What's the other side of the board look like, specifically the four large FET drivers?

Silly me for only giving you half the picture, one moment, a side of top facing photos will be served momentarily

One other thing that worries me - is the articulating smoke pipe thing supposed to hang down like that? Spring assembly contacts the screws for both hot/common. Wondering if some electrical tape covering the top of the screws would be a good long term solution as well to prevent cooking the headlight wiring back to the board and preventing a short to chassis

Note the crack in this FET, obviously the motor driver output was shorted to ground or to the other motor lead.  There may be a crack in the one next to it as well.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Note the crack in this FET, obviously the motor driver output was shorted to ground or to the other motor lead.

-snipped photo-

Ouch that's definitely no bueno. I'd imagine my checklist contains the following to-do's now:

• Check the canon with a dc power supply to see if the motor itself is shorted
  • Replace motor if shorted
• Replace the RCMC
• Replace headlight wire

@SirCaptain posted:

Ouch that's definitely no bueno. I'd imagine my checklist contains the following to-do's now:

• Check the canon with a dc power supply to see if the motor itself is shorted
  • Replace motor if shorted
• Replace the RCMC
• Replace headlight wire

Don't check it, replace it!  The Canon is infamous for having an intermittent short that turns permanent and kills the board!  I've had four so far come across my bench with the RCMC cooked.  I did manage to revive on of them by replacing the FET's, the others were too far gone.  Yours might survive a driver FET replacement, it doesn't look like the board got crisped under them.

Just reminds me why I had that urge to rip that Canon out of my new Class A last weekend. Big fan of the Pittman swap.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Don't check it, replace it!  The Canon is infamous for having an intermittent short that turns permanent and kills the board!  I've had four so far come across my bench with the RCMC cooked.  I did manage to revive on of them by replacing the FET's, the others were too far gone.  Yours might survive a driver FET replacement, it doesn't look like the board got crisped under them.

Sounds good , sucks that a 50$ DC motor potentially cooked a $150 board.

So for parts

• RCMC cs-691RCMC145-p
• Canon Motor cs-6101300100-p

Anything else I should look into while I'm on the parts site? Bleh this is going to be expensive

Also - anything I can put inline to stop the canon from taking out the board with it?

@SirCaptain posted:

So for parts

• RCMC cs-691RCMC145-p
• Canon Motor cs-6101300100-p

Anything else I should look into while I'm on the parts site? Bleh this is going to be expensive

Drop the Canon motor from the list, replace it with a Pittman!

@SirCaptain posted:

Also - anything I can put inline to stop the canon from taking out the board with it?

Replace it with a Pittman, don't put another crappy Canon motor in there!

Is there a Pittman supplier that will match the canon size/spec and drop right in? I can doodle with electronics but don't have the tools to modify motor fittings

Talk to Pat, aka @harmonyards here, he wrote the book on Pittman swaps.

I've raised the Pat Signal into the sky, waiting for the logo of a Pittman to shine back

Easy swap. You'll need a 12V 9234 or 9434 Pittman. The motor mounting screws will need to be replaced with 6/32" screws, with the motor mount and encoder holes enlarged to allow the 6/32" screw to pass through.

Ordered some 9234's to mess around with. Very likely going to send this one to Pat as I've already got the funds allocated for it, but I've got a fleet of other lionel engines they may benefit swapping canons from. Did a cursory check but mostly saw 24v 9434's - do you have an item id on the bay for 9434's (or another site that won't burn a hole in wallet)

9434’s don’t always fit every application fellas. Some applications require the shorter 9433…….. You also have to be mindful how long the shaft is. Some flywheels require a rebore for the set screws. Some swaps are a slam dunk, some require a little more thought. 24V no good for this application. 12V & 15.1V ok…….

Pat

@Lou1985 posted:

Easy swap. You'll need a 12V 9234 or 9434 Pittman. The motor mounting screws will need to be replaced with 6/32" screws, with the motor mount and encoder holes enlarged to allow the 6/32" screw to pass through.

The mounting threads on Pittmans vary. Many are #6-32 (not 6/32") but they also sometimes have M4 or M5 threads.

Check to be sure and don't force it if it's tight. It can crack the motor casing if you do.

@rplst8 posted:

The mounting threads on Pittmans vary. Many are #6-32 (not 6/32") but they also sometimes have M4 or M5 threads.

Check to be sure and don't force it if it's tight. It can crack the motor casing if you do.

That’s not really a horrible issue Ryan, the nose cap easily comes off, and a 6-32 tap makes short work of converting it……I don’t even horse around trying to find the metric screws, ….just pass a tap through them, and get back in business….

Pat

@harmonyards posted:

That’s not really a horrible issue Ryan, the nose cap easily comes off, and a 6-32 tap makes short work of converting it……I don’t even horse around trying to find the metric screws, ….just pass a tap through them, and get back in business….

Pat

Fair point, but chances are the OP won’t have a spare, not everyone has taps and dies, and I didn’t want “all Pittmans have #6-32 threads” to mislead a future hobbyist. Just adding info I’ve learned the hard way.

In my case I have metric taps, but not standard, lol.

That reminds me that I need to do some shopping at Micro-Mark, lol.

@rplst8 posted:

Fair point, but chances are the OP won’t have a spare, not everyone has taps and dies, and I didn’t want “all Pittmans have #6-32 threads” to mislead a future hobbyist. Just adding info I’ve learned the hard way.

In my case I have metric taps, but not standard, lol.

That reminds me that I need to do some shopping at Micro-Mark, lol.

Micro Mark!?……..🤮

buy genuine Hanson taps, for model making, 1,2,3,4, & 5 mm are must haves, along with 2-56, 3-48, 4-40, & 6-32. Those are the most common, some other sizes are used, but not as often. Small taps are not expensive at all, ….Irwin, Sanp On, and a couple of the other brands are Hanson’s  in disguise. Beware of off shore taps, easily broken …….and nothing worse than a busted off tap,…..you’ll throw up your shoes when that happens……..remember, good tools aren’t cheap, but cheap tools aren’t good.

Pat