Vision Line Big Boy pop off smoke burning too hot!

Is there a thermistor inside this unit? If so, can you move it closer to the heating element?

@rplst8 posted:

Is there a thermistor inside this unit? If so, can you move it closer to the heating element?

There is, inside each of the 4 units. I figured I would check them all while in there. . I'll give this a shot and share the results.

@Big Boy Trains posted:

There is, inside each of the 4 units. I figured I would check them all while in there. . I'll give this a shot and share the results.

Let us know about how far apart the sensor is from the heating resistor,……they should be an 1/8” to a 1/16” from the heating resistor,……could also be a software issue if they’ve applied too much voltage to that particular unit when that feature is activated…..

Pat

just curious is the motor wire issue on all these models. I have the elephant ears one.

test ran it only. havent tried the smoke units yet. I turned them all off for the initial test run.

was out of smoke fluid at the time. got some more lionel premium unsented. just havent got around to trying the smoke features out yet.

yes I agree with you that lionels recommended 20 drops is way too low. maybe the old Eye droppers in megesteam bottles or bottles with the rubber dropper from lionel are how they judge this.

I use a needle point dispenser and it takes some times 45 drops to properly fill some of my steamers.

btw thanks pat for the thermistor spacing numbers. I always wondered how far away or close they shoud be to the heating resitor.

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

just curious is the motor wire issue on all these models. I have the elephant ears one.

test ran it only. havent tried the smoke units yet. I turned them all off for the initial test run.

was out of smoke fluid at the time. got some more lionel premium unsented. just havent got around to trying the smoke features out yet.

yes I agree with you that lionels recommended 20 drops is way too low. maybe the old Eye droppers in megesteam bottles or bottles with the rubber dropper from lionel are how they judge this.

I use a needle point dispenser and it takes some times 45 drops to properly fill some of my steamers.

btw thanks pat for the thermistor spacing numbers. I always wondered how far away or close they shoud be to the heating resitor.

If you were running yours, then you don't have the motor issue. Those that do have it, when they spin up the speed, the engine does not move at all and the cab light flashes until the engine is reset. . Here are some photos of the motor wire in question. Will have a video up on my YouTube channel this weekend BigBoyTrains-

thanks BBT. that eases my mind. I just got out my BB and filled all the smoke units. after it sets a while I will test run it again. this time with smoke.

my current layout cannot handel this engine. only back and forth for testing. may have to break out my test oval of 072 fastrack today to run it in good and see how it does for a few laps.

I hope I dont get a noisy smoke fan motor. I hesitate to take this engine apart as there is a lot under the shell. plus its still under lionels warranty. 😄

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

just curious is the motor wire issue on all these models. I have the elephant ears one.

test ran it only. havent tried the smoke units yet. I turned them all off for the initial test run.

was out of smoke fluid at the time. got some more lionel premium unsented. just havent got around to trying the smoke features out yet.

yes I agree with you that lionels recommended 20 drops is way too low. maybe the old Eye droppers in megesteam bottles or bottles with the rubber dropper from lionel are how they judge this.

I use a needle point dispenser and it takes some times 45 drops to properly fill some of my steamers.

btw thanks pat for the thermistor spacing numbers. I always wondered how far away or close they shoud be to the heating resitor.

I know I’ve fixed at least half dozen with the broken wire issue, and a buddy of mine who’s a tech fixed a pile of them

@Lionelzwl2012 posted:

thanks BBT. that eases my mind. I just got out my BB and filled all the smoke units. after it sets a while I will test run it again. this time with smoke.

my current layout cannot handel this engine. only back and forth for testing. may have to break out my test oval of 072 fastrack today to run it in good and see how it does for a few laps.

I hope I dont get a noisy smoke fan motor. I hesitate to take this engine apart as there is a lot under the shell. plus its still under lionels warranty. 😄

If the smoke motor ain’t audible over the sound system, then it ain’t noisy,…..soldier on…

Pat

pat the smoke motors were all a bit loud. so the curiosity got the best of me and I voided my warranty.

I took the shell off. I was amazed at how nice this was inside. not as hard as I thought it would be. easy to get back together also.

good thing I went over every smoke unit. they were all dry even after adding fluid. they are full now. they all work great.

now adding fluid with the shell on is not ideal. all the bends in the smoke funnels makes it hard to get the fluid into the units properly.

note: big boy is absolutely right. to all reading this 20 DROPS IS NOT ENOUGH at all for the main stack. the other single units take more also. just make sure you have enough. my first attempt out of the box did not even get the wicks wet.

I only ran them on medium smoke only and when I opened them up the wicks were already staring to char a fair amount. so make sure you are putting plenty of fluid in these bad boys or you will be sevicing your smoke units sooner than you wish.

as to the pop off smoke getting to hot BBT mine seems ok for now. it just needed the right amont of fluid in that smoke unit. wich initially I did not have at all. with the proper amount its working as it should.

This is the gap inside the pop off smoke unit.

BBT not sure about the thermistor spacing but is that batting a little dry. hard to tell from the photo. I really soaked mine when I had them open.

the trouble is now that its all back together. getting the fluid properly into the smoke units with all the various funnels twist and turns is hard. if done right and the fluid is not all over the insides of the funnels themselves and down in the batting where it should be. the smoke output is crazy good on all of them. even on the medium setting.

I wish there was a way to avoid the funnels altogether,but on these models they had to do them this way.

on my steamers with one stack filling them correctly with fluid is easy. they never clog and work every time as intended.

just a thought on the thermistor. I always line it up with the square outline on the pcb drawn underneath it. I figure thats why its printed there. check that and see what happens.

I will say my pop off steam is better looking than the others. the smoke coming out is more white looking at times than the other unites. the smoke comming out of the main stack is more a dark grey color most of the time. this could be how lionel set the temps up for each one to operate at. not sure about that though.

The batting is definitely not dry. If you zoom in, you can see the shine from it being saturated.

@Big Boy Trains posted:

The batting is definitely not dry. If you zoom in, you can see the shine from it being saturated.

Your pop off smoke unit doesn’t look like it’s overheating. Did you happen to try & measure the gap between the sensor and the heating resistor?  Ideally, 1/16” to 1/8” is desired.

Pat

BBT, after looking again you are correct. plus now that I took a second look. your resitor is brand new looking plus the batting is very light brown color.

that is normal. if it were running too hot the batting would be cooked on to the resitor and you would have to scrape it off.

do as pat suggested and measure it. my thoughts are its working fine. mine puts out a lot of smoke when activated,but I like that.

btw I turned my popoff feature off for now. its cool and all,but really eats the smoke fluid.