Sunday, November 6, 2011

BR260 Broken

My BR260 started to do something really strange. It was loosing power progressively. Each day it was able to pull from less wagons. Finally at full throttle started to move slowly and after few centimeters stopped.

The design of this machine is a mess inside. The power is taken from the wheels with a soldered wire for the positive and with a screw that attach the little circuit to the chassis. And power to the motor is given by a soldered wire for negative, and through a week contact for the positive.

I can't figure out why it needs resistances, reel and other electronic stuff to run a small train... I tested the motor and it runs perfect, I also installed again the dummy and the wrong behavior was also reproduced in DC.

Finally, I removed everything and install a simple NEM connector and a Decoder. Now the nurse discharged the patient.


5 comments:

  1. These are the kind of situations that give me nightmares! Who is the maker? I have a Fleischmann BR 64 that has been nothing but problems since I first had it (and its even been sent back for warranty repair and still doesn't run good!).

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  2. It's from Minitrix. Each time I trust more the simplicity of Kato designs....

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  3. Hello Dani,

    I have exactly the same problem as you with my V60 from Minitrix. But my problem now is I cannnot dismantle it!!! Perhaps I'm a little dummy, but I have followed the instructions of pushing out with an screw driver the four corners of the body bellow the locomotive but I¡m absolutely unable to remove the chasis. Any advice?

    Regards

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  4. Those Minitrix hulls are really tricky to open, never think you are dummy. The right way is using a small and thin screw driver as you where told. Put it in the edge of the hull and try to move it all along the way, not only the four corners. May be there is any other fixation point. While moving the screw driver try to pull the upper part with a balancing movement while holding the interior part (from the wheels). As you see, you need three hands with very small fingers!!!! ;) Not a smart design... it's just a matter of patience and luck...

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  5. Thank you. I'll keep you updated. Not a very good design at all, altough the locomotive is very pretty and runs smoothly.

    By the way, about the problems you (and I) had about the slow movement in the instruction manual it is indicated the locomotive is proteced agains overloads. Probably it means it has a PTC, an small resistor that acts as a fusible when temperature arises. Probably people of Minitrix haven't been able to choose the rigth model (in terms of nominal current, voltage, power) and it brokes easily. When broken it cuts the current too early. That's why when you remove it everithing worked ok again.

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