Auscision duly replied to my email advising that I should of returned the unit to the place of purchase for a replacement, as was their policy. Pretty silly when you think about it. Mike at DCC Sound found the factory fault and fixed it for me for no cost. Under Auscision's policy, I should of advised Mike to stop work. Pack it up. I pay for postage to South Australia back to Orient Express Models, then have them check to see if it was a factory fault. And then, if it was and if they had another one of the same model in stock send that one back to Mike for continuance with the decoder install. If they didn't have the same model in stock, they would have had to get one in from Auscision, who would have had to pay postage to Orient. Does this sound logical? I don't.
I can't fault the customer service of Mike at DCC Sound. Similarly Orient Express have been good to me in the past. But Auscision's customer service has a lot to be desired!
So the railmotor arrived last week. I have only been able to test it briefly on the programming track as I have stuff all over one side of my layout in temporary storage. I might be able to shift some of it around and get it operating over the Xmas break. I could only hear one of the speakers working, so not sure if the other one has a problem, kicks in at higher speeds, or something else. Anyway the more important thing was that the decoder didn't blow!
Well that's it for this week.
I wish all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas and safe 2014.
Since the last post Mike Walters at DCC Sound advised me that ESU (Loksound) had advised that it was the sound amp on the chip that blew. He suggested a number of possibilities but the best thing would be to send the model and decoder back to him and he would look into what had caused the problem to start with. No point getting the replacement if it was to blow again due to a factory problem with the model's wiring. I thought the postage to Victoria would be a small price to pay to get someone who knew about decoder installs into this model to make sure everything was OK. So I mailed the model and decoder. A few days later Mike was in touch. He advised he found a short in the speaker wire circuitry from the moor board. It looks like the wire insulation had melted a bit more due to a possible factory resolder which caused two wires to touch when the body shell was on. He said he would fix this, as well as give me a second speaker for 2nd class for my troubles. The decoder couldn't be replaced under warranty but under repair. He still gives me a new decoder but I had to pay $42 for the repair, which he sends back to Germany and gets fixed and returned to his stock. I thought a great deal all up. He also suggested advising Auscision of this situation to see if they will come to the party to recompense me for the repair postage. I've duly sent an email to Auscision and wait their reply.
Apart from this no modelling on other stuff.
At the Club Modelling Comp weekend just gone I didn't win anything this year but Lachlan got the President's Award again for his Alaska Rail Road diorama entry.
Until next time.
The day after the last post the Loksound decoder arrived from dccsound. I had to wait until the weekend before I could go anywhere near the shed. Saturday arrived as did some constant rain. Perfect weather for shed time if only the missus hadn't gone out for the morning for a hairdresser appointment (I think it is a devilish plan to have some child free time!). Anyway the boys kept me busy keeping them entertained. By midmorning it was time to take them somewhere. So off we went to the local games arcade down at the shops. We spent about an hour and a half of quality Dad time on the computer games, pin ball machines, and other distractions. And it only cost me $20!
The afternoon arrived and so did the missus. So having spent quality time with the boys in the morning, it was now my turn to have 'me' time. As it was still showery, the grass was too wet to cut, so the shed and my recent purchases beckoned. I put the railmotor on Lachlan's DC layout for a couple of hours of running in between some other things like lunch and a nanna nap! It did look good. Now it was time to put the decoder in. This model certainly was designed better than the 73, as plenty of pre-positioning for DCC. The 21 pin drop in decoder had no problems. The speaker install was the most time consuming. Now for a test of the sound. Sounded great. As all this was done on the central motor carriage it was time to attach the end carriages. This done, I turned the power back on then the decoder. The speaker started sounding a bleeping sound. Then I detected the faint wiff of doom....I mean fried electronics. That wasn't good. I looked a bit further and couldn't find the problem. The 'alarm' might have been a short circuit alarm, but I couldn't see anything obvious. I turned the power back on watching the decoder at the same time. FLASH and POP a microsecond later and the decoder looked stuffed. Oh no, not again!
Well I made contact with dccsound and Mike was very accomodating. I have sent a photo of the decoder and he will check it out. A warranty replacement could be coming my way. Time will tell.
I also soldered up the replacement sugar cube speaker to the 73 and cranked it up. No crackling. Hooray! Now I just have to finish the conversion!
This afternoon I went around to one of Lachlan's friend's house as he was over for a birthday party. The dad of the friend is also into modelling but I hadn't seen his layout for about 12 months. He warned me not much had happened landscape wise as he had decided to convert to DCC and re-position some track. He has purchased an ESU ECos system which is very nice. Everything in the one little unit, including wireless to smartphone! Pretty much like JMRI and others all in the one unit. Perfect for a lone modeller. He also showed me his replacement DCC turntable (Walthers Cornerstone 90') operating. Very nice and smooth operation compared to the old analogue models.
Well that is about it for this week.
