"Don't cross the streams!"

More on the post title shortly. However m'thinks I've cooked the Zimo decoder but no idea what caused it. I decided to connect up the decoder to the track pickups and the motor control for basic testing. I then placed it on the test track and connected the SB3a. Immediately the SB3a was constantly resetting itself after a short somewhere. Meanwhile the decoder began overheating so much that the heatshrink started burning off. Never seen this before! So not sure if there was a fault with the decoder, or something else. So I had a chat with Mr Mackie on Friday and he suggested a few things to test. Direct DC to the motor to check for bindings. No, the motor rotated fine as did the gearbox and wheels. Then wire in the DCC and check for DC operation. Zip. Therefore no point going back to do more DCC operations. I had a spare new NCE motor only decoder so decided to wire this in to do the same tests to see if it was the Zimo decoder or not. DCC detect of DC worked. Tick. DCC only started to work, apart from a bit of a whine from the gearbox in reverse direction (odd!). Tick. So it was looking like the Zimo decoder. However just as I was about to stop the tests, FLASH, FIRE and SMOKE came from the NCE decoder. WTF! Then I saw what had occurred. I had failed to insulate the soldered joints as this was only meant to be a temporary test. But a track pickup and one of the motor wires touched and obviously caused a bit of mayhem on the decoder. I effectively "crossed the streams" (reference to Ghostbusters movie). Damn I didn't want that to occur! So now I'm down two decoders.

So where to from here? I still want to see if I can get the 73 decodered correctly. I will check with the retailer and see if they know of any possible reason. If 'user error' do I go for another Zimo or try another brand with less functions? Not really sure but I have invested too much so far, and intend to invest more, to just throw it all away for the sake of experience!

So while I am sorting this out and waiting for the LEDs to arrive from Germany, I might do something else.

On a happier note, it was Fathers' Day today and the boys got me a few things for the layout which was very nice of them.