smoking caboose err upgrade

I would not. You’ll most likely over heat the unit. These units don’t smoke like the engine units. Produce very little smoke and really not worth tampering with. I leave mine off. 

That's a good way to overheat your smoke unit and melt your caboose. Myself I wouldn't do it. There's a post somewhere that Gun runner John explains how to use a MTH HO fan driven smoke unit that can be installed in smoking caboose's to get more smoke output.

How am I overheating the smoke unit? I can configure the mini commander to put out any voltage from 2 to 18 volts.

Truthfully, if you like a smoking caboose, consider putting something like the MTH HO fan driven smoke unit in the caboose.  The element likes around 5V, and the fan will run on 2-3 volts DC.  It gives you nice smoke for a caboose, and won't overheat the sides of your caboose.

Joe Fermani posted:

How am I overheating the smoke unit? I can configure the mini commander to put out any voltage from 2 to 18 volts.

Since you can control the voltage, I forgot about that, as long as you don't put to much voltage to the unit you won't. I think John's solution is the way to go.

I've done a couple of cabooses for folks with this smoke unit, it's way superior to trying to "enhance" the stock smoke unit.

GRJ, what does the MTH HO smoke unit usually cost?

What was the purpose of the 10 watt resistor in the original setup?

aussteve posted:

GRJ, what does the MTH HO smoke unit usually cost?

Around $40 MSRP if I remember correctly.  I still have a couple, so I haven't bought one in a while.

Joe Fermani posted:

What was the purpose of the 10 watt resistor in the original setup?

Obviously for current limiting, but I'm not sure why.