Born under a bad sign, I been down since I began to crawl..
I should have stayed in bed, one thing after another. Gave up on the day early, and decided to work on the trains.
Result? I did a bunch of "work" I didn't need to, and did it poorly
My Martian rocket had stopped smoking.
Or I should say, "It smoked but the fan stopped working".
I took it apart, snapping the legs on the led's for the rocket engines nozzle, and doing some wire damage
Took a reading at the regulator, and got I nothing. So I took it to the other layout for repair, and replaced it, the led board, the wires, and the 5v regulator. Then re-glued some weight that came loose with hot glue. And then soldered the 2 wires, and reassembled it... without the brush I removed for testing(no neutral)
So I take it apart, and another power wire snaps, and I see the weights have shifted and it, and hot glue are now one with the nosecone lighting base! It wasn't cool enough even after two solder points were done. I can only hope the bulb heat will allow it to droop back during a log run, otherwise once the bulb burns out, no more glowing red War Bonnet. At least not easily.
So, I do get it together, and I do test it, and it works....till I get to the living room then it stops. I go back to the other room & it works again. I go to the living room its dead again.
Then it takes me about two minutes to figure out in my head, that while moving things around the living room, someone had accidently knocked the wires off, and then reversed the leads from the 12vdc 4amp 1970s Radio Shack power supply I use in the living room . The diode is blocking the current in "that direction"
Reversing the wire polarity brings it to life again
It cost me a regulator, and about two hours of frustration. Its ready to be full of fluid again, and I'm ready to fill the room with some smoke
See ya later! .