Mike, I read board too. but I don’t know if they mean the whole board or the dummy board. I would think the dummy board would be just traces, no components. But I haven’t opened mine up to see if that is indeed the case
*** ALL posts on this thread deleted due to personal name calling and general bitching by Mike Morgan, if you want to find the answers I have to avoid burning up a decoder in the Peter Witt streetcar contact me personally… ***
So Mike you got your wish… Now you have nothing to complain about…
Regards, Greg
Hmmm… I just bought four of these trolleys. I’ve been commissioned to rebuild them into replicas of the original wooden trolleys that operated in San Diego’s Balboa Park when it first opened in 1915.
Interesting!
Regarding addressing any found problems I can easily relate to Greg’s position. He had so much experience with the dearly departed Aristo-Line that getting all ducks in a row first has become second nature.
And so it should be!
Any of you tired yet of being Beta testers for manufacturers? I snicker every time I read another long thread about how to correct/improve the product which a mfg considers “free of defects and manufacturing errors”. Yeah right, when pigs will fly!
HJ, I’ve seen a deer fly, an’ I’ve seen a horse fly. I’ve seen a house fly, an’ I’ve even seen an elephant fly, but I swear, I’ve never seen a pig fly!
xxx
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Greg Elmassian said:
…
I’m doing an investigation regarding the use of Zimo decoders in one, and my results will be published on my web site.
Here’s the page:
http://www.elmassian.com/trains/motive-power-mods-aamp-tips/bachmann-motive-power/peter-witt-trolley
Regards, Greg
Greg,
Aha hmmm …
My friend in Kelowna
Model Railroad Solutions
ZIMO Agency of North America
is very helpful when it comes to ZIMO decoder installations. There is a cardinal rule - the same one that TOC favours - i.e. toss all or almost all the trash the manufacturers install and start with a clean slate.
I seriously doubt that the Bachmann streetcar has more functions than one of my RhB engines - special Swiss mode of a headlights, taillights sequence, cab lights, pantographs and a gazillion different sound functions.
Soooo it all comes down to the interface aka a fancy PnP circuit board.
If it ain’t so hot, it probably will run really hot and instead of the clang-clang effect you get that distinct smoke effect complete with smell.
It always flabbergasts me that after all these years the LS mfgs apparently still can’t get it right. Any other scale it’s PnP with a standard interface on any number of engines - that is if they don’t come with a decoder straight from the mfg. I guess it’s just one more item that is “unique” to LS, eh!
Note to Steve: you forgot the bottle fly and the blue-assed fly. 
Hans, yes it amazes me that manufactures do that sort of thing. After so many years of building stuff, they really should have a handle on it by now. And no, its not unique to LS trains, unfortunately.
David Maynard said:
Hans, yes it amazes me that manufactures do that sort of thing. After so many years of building stuff, they really should have a handle on it by now. And no, its not unique to LS trains, unfortunately.
I hang out on a few fora where the general theme is HO and N (electrified mice) , I just don’t come across as many posts concerning interface problems in those scales. In LS it seems to be “lets reinvent the wheel once more and see what happens” most of the time. OTOH there are always enough people who like to be Beta testers, rewarding the mfgs by a) buying the product b) reporting “glitches” c) repeat next time around when there’s more new product. Absolutely amazing! 
Hans, I want the toys I want. So, I guess I am beta testing.
In the copier world, my customers are beta testers. But I don’t think they know it.
*** ALL posts on this thread deleted due to personal name calling and general bitching by Mike Morgan, if you want to find the answers I have to avoid burning up a decoder in the Peter Witt streetcar contact me personally… ***
So Mike you got your wish… Now you have nothing to complain about…
Regards, Greg
David Maynard said:
Hans, I want the toys I want. So, I guess I am beta testing.
In the copier world, my customers are beta testers. But I don’t think they know it.
Yes, oh we know it, and the shoe prints on the sides of maleficent machines are just attempts to “diagnose and correct” those factory shortcomings…
Vic Smith said:
Yes, oh we know it, and the shoe prints on the sides of maleficent machines are just attempts to “diagnose and correct” those factory shortcomings…
In my former life (back in the early 70s) a customer had a hi-tech machine (the old kind with relay control system) that once in a while would have an intermittent fault (those are the most fun to find). One day the boss dropped by there when the "beast"was acting up. On his return he proudly announced that he “fixed it”. He simply kicked the large control panel and the machine was “fixed”. He really knew how to sell stuff and had a unique way to fix things.
*** ALL posts on this thread deleted due to personal name calling and general bitching by Mike Morgan, if you want to find the answers I have to avoid burning up a decoder in the Peter Witt streetcar contact me personally… ***
So Mike you got your wish… Now you have nothing to complain about…
Regards, Greg
Wonder how many problems the GP 60 project will spawn from AML, if bachman can’t get it right on the first try
*** ALL posts on this thread deleted due to personal name calling and general bitching by Mike Morgan, if you want to find the answers I have to avoid burning up a decoder in the Peter Witt streetcar contact me personally… ***
So Mike you got your wish… Now you have nothing to complain about…
Regards, Greg
My point is first production woes happen, even with the stuff i’m doing, I try to avoid first runs to let the other guy help fix the problems.
Btw thanks to anyone that;s helping getting these issues fixed, hopefully this isn’t Bachmans only 1/29th project
*** ALL posts on this thread deleted due to personal name calling and general bitching by Mike Morgan, if you want to find the answers I have to avoid burning up a decoder in the Peter Witt streetcar contact me personally… ***
So Mike you got your wish… Now you have nothing to complain about…
Regards, Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
Don’t know how to compare the 2 companies, but AML is NOT famous for cracked gears, weird and different sockets, etc., so no idea why you would want to bring this up, completely off topic.
Back to the topic, I will be validating the pins of the “socket” this weekend, and with the help of Stan will hopefully be able to identify the dangers/problems so people can pick a decoder with no issues.
Interesting about the problems reported by Stan, if these components are all diodes, then some overload had to have happened. I suspect the sockets/connectors, but this unit does not draw a lot of current… the pins ARE small though, I’ll have a look at the connectors themselves.
Greg