A few days ago I was running three Legacy engines o the layout and everything was well until it wasn't. My VisionLine Niagara had completed a dozen laps of the layout and suddenly came to an abrupt halt. My other two engine continued running and full control of each was available on my Cab2.
When I approached the Niagara, the smoke had stopped on its own volition and the Rule17 headlight was not on. I did notice the Railsounds steam "at rest " sounds were still on but I could not get the whistle or bell to function from the Cab2. I powered down the layout and re-powered everything back up. As soon as I applied track power the Niagara resumed its "at rest" Railsounds suite without ever addressing that locomotive on the Cab2.
This morning I set up a remote test track upstairs using a CW-180 transformer to see what operating Conventionally would show me. Once operating voltage came up to minimum, the Railsounds suite became operational and I could also blow the whistle and ring the bell which I couldn't do in CMD mode with the Cab2 before. I still had no motor commands available to run the engine however, along with no headlight, smoke unit (2 each0) operation or boiler pressure release functions.
Yesterday I opened up the boiler and perused the control boards for anything suspicious. At no time have I noticed any "smoke plumes of death" from electronic sources. I found no melted wiring and no signs of blown capacitors. I wondered is the radio board had become loose from the RCMC but it appears to be soldered on in this case. I did wonder about the whit-ish residue around these eight pins which may be soldering flux residue or not. I am including pictures of this .
Any help troubleshooting this would be appreciated as the RCMC is a $200.00 board or worse......
