YLB #10510 Question for Gunrunner John

maybe the 9 volt snap on connector is loose and is not locking on your  YLB battery. you can tighten the locking circle clip using needle nose your probably not making good connection or you have a defective ylb!

Alan 

Thank you Alan,  The 10510 uses a plug that goes directly into the sound board. I have used the 10500 with the battery clip on older engines with battery clips.  The new Legacy engine have no battery clip, so Gunrunner John made the 10510 with a plug to go directly into the sound board.

It worked last night. Today it does not. After removing the YLB, I got the sound back like when I first received the engine.

I have tightened the battery clip snaps on one of the thirty engines that did not make a secure connection with the 10500 YLB.

Thank you for the information.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

YW

I can't say for sure without seeing it.  The only thing I can think of is it's possible that the sound card has a bad bridge rectifier.  The YLB in Legacy draws some current through the bridge rectifier on the RS-Lite during early charge.  There's a ton of them out there, and it's never been an issue, there's always a first time.  The reason for the current draw is the lack of a common ground for the new RailSounds boards for Legacy.

Gunrunner John,  Is there anything I can do to evaluate the issue?  I have another new YLB 10510.  Would installing it be a waste of time?  

The sound did work when I first installed the first YLB 10510.  How long should it take the YLB to charge if everything was normal?  

Are there any tests I can do?  The sound system without the YLB 10510 is working normally now, I believe. I have a slight background noise when the engine is running at higher speeds.  The steam hiss softens at slower speeds.

My other Hudson #5415 is fine, but it has the PT Tender.  The #5416 Hudson has the two, six-wheel trucks, original tender.  I like the original tender so much, I added a #5418 Hudson from Mr. Muffin's Trains that I hope to have weathered. That is why I bought a spare YLB 10510.

What should I do next?  Thank you for your help.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Well, the second YLB install would show if something unique is happening with that one piece.  If you have abnormal sound from the audio board, that would seem to indicate something different with that board.

Gunrunner John,  I installed the second 10510 YLB in my Hudson #5416 from Pat's Trains.  The sound worked fine for the half hour I ran the engine.  I will run the engine again tonight to see that it is still working correctly.

I do not know what caused the sound to stop working with the first 10510 YLB Battery.  I could not get the sound to work with either "Reset" or "Re-programming " the engine.  Once I removed the first battery, the sound came back on normally. 

The sound hiss I am hearing at above speed step 62 also sounds on my #5415 from Mr. Muffin's Trains that has the other PT tender.  Thank you for your help.  The YLB Batteries are great and support the sound on 32 of my steam engines when the tenders go over gaps in the center rail. 

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Try the battery in another unit and see if it causes the same issue.  If so, I'll swap it out, if there's some problem, I'd like to know what it is.

Gunrunner John,  The second 10510 YLB caused the sound system to shut down after 30 minutes of use. Initially the battery worked for the first 30 minute run.  When I came back to run it after dinner, I had no sound.  I tried to reset it three times, but I could not make the sound work.  This is exactly what happened with the first 10510. Both just arrived from Henning's trains on Monday, November 25, 2019.  I don't know if either of the 10510 still work.  I will temporarily install them in an engine tomorrow and see what happens.

I am including a picture of the sound board in the new 12-wheel tender with the #5416 Hudson from Pat's Trains. Could Lionel have put a small rechargeable battery on this sound board?  The sound is not dropping out as manufactured, but the pick-up rollers are spaced far apart.  (I chipped the plug socket when removing the second 10510 YLB.)

The 1931800 NYC Hudson #5416 is working fine with the second 10510 battery removed.  I posted a brief video of the engine.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

I'm at a loss, you're the first person to report something like this.  Once the locomotive is running and the YLB is charged, there is no current draw to speak of, so I can't imagine what is happening.  I'd like to see at least one of those to give it a bench test to see what is happening.

I will install the two 10510 individually in a tender and then let them charge.  

I will turn off the transformer and see if the YLB battery extends the sound in the tender past turning off the transformer. I usually have five seconds of sound after turning off the transformer, like in conventional operation.

I will get the two 10510 boxed and ready to send to you.  I will write a note about how each 10510 YLB battery tested.  Thank you for your help.  I have never encountered this problem with the other thirty YLB batteries I have installed.  Is it possible that Lionel made changes in the sound board in the 12-wheel J3a Hudson tenders?

Sincerely, John Rowlen.

Hard to know what happened, I'll see when I run a bench test on the YLB units.  Obviously, I can't really control what happens with the Lionel boards.

One test I can suggest.  Plug the battery cable into the Hudson and use a 9V battery, see if you see similar issues.  Maybe there's some issue with battery voltage being present.

Gunrunner John,  I will do the 9 volt battery cable test on the Hudson. I have an extra cable in my supplies.

Speculation:  Could the battery power SWITCH the source of power to battery?  (Battery or Track, not both) 

I get a brief sound when I called the engine (address 16) on the 990 Remote.  Very brief sound, then nothing.  Could the brief battery power SWITCH OFF the access to the center rail power?  (Battery or Track, not both)  The sound does not last five seconds. It is just a second of hiss noise.

The Hudson #5416 is running perfectly without the battery. I have no problem going over my Atlas O #5 switches on the mainline, but I have not tried the double cross-over yet in the yard.  I have steam engines blocking access to the yard that I am in the process of boxing for storage.

I will run the tests and post results.  Thank you for your help.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

John Rowlen posted:

Speculation:  Could the battery power SWITCH the source of power to battery?  (Battery or Track, not both)

Not sure what you're asking here.  Just having the power from the battery won't switch to battery power or it would do that with an alkaline battery and kill it in one day.