New and a little confused

hmm, well I have searched and could not find an appropriate thread, so Admins if this is in wrong thread please advise me with the correct link or move this post at your will.

Ok so I was changing my track around making a cliff face sort of setup, all done, turned power on and the car was driving nicely until I got a bit too cocky with the power and de-slot it did lol, checked the car, put it back on the track and saw some smoke coming from the digital chip area (I had the body off as I had cleaned it and am playing around with adding weight with Blue-Tak currently) anyway, I turned power off and checked the car for any braid metal and other foreign bodies (there was neither) put the car back on no smoke this time but the car just started by itself at full revs (I held the rear end off the track in case of any further smoke hence it didn't fly away on me.

I turned the power off, waited a minute, repeated placement of car on track, still holding the rear up, the motor started full revs once again.... does not make a difference with controller on or off and this is the only car on the track.

Anyone have any ideas as to what the heck is going on? With the smoke from the dig. chip is the chip assumed to be fried? just tried now before submitting this post, the same thing, full revs no controller, different tracks, full revs!!

TIA

Cheers Johnno

injectorman said:

Yup fried.

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thought so. Thanks mate. Oh well looks like I have a chassis and body to produce some kind of scratch build sometime in the future

Next pondering thought is how could this happen in the first place? I found no foreign bodies or shorts when it was dismantled.

GregK said:

Onya Johnno,

The damage may well be only limited to the components that control the Drive and Braking functionality of the chip. A simple test is to hold the back wheels off the track and slowly push the car past a lane changer (LC) which is set to the change position; if the flipper clicks back to straight ahead, it is worth getting the chip fixed as it is not completely Bjorked.

The cost of a repair is roughly 9$ Oz, factor in the postage costs and you should be able to work out how many chips it would take to make it cost effective to get them fixed. So don't bin any damaged ones because you will get a few ......

As my Crystal Ball is at the cleaners ....... some good clear photos of the chip and how it is wired in, would help aid the diagnosis.

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sorry about the delay in replying Greg and everyone, I had a brief stay in hospital,ambulance took me late Thursday afternoon and just got discharged late Sunday along with some bad news on discharge, anyway, just catching up and getting back in the swing of things.

Greg, I manually changed the LC to turn setting and pushed the car through the LC and the flipper does not return to straight ahead (normal) position.. so I can assume that the digital chip and other circuitry is fried somehow.

oh well, got my first car to scratch de-build and place somewhere on the track as an accident scene at the worst case scenario with the best case being I have a chassis to play around with.

Photos as requested Greg, I hope they are clear enough, if not let me know.

photo 1:

photo 2:

Thanks

Johnno

GregK said:

Sorry to hear about your bad news ......

Next thing to do is to carefully slice off the four black plastic protrusions that hold the black casing to the chip; one in each corner. Then have a good look at the small components and compare then to the damage you see in this thread.

Let us know how you get on.

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Is it worth doing as you mentioned Greg? The chips are only $30.

Here is the chip showing black burn marks

Dr_C said:

Sorry to hear your update... hope all goes well and with all good wishes from me...

Meanwhile sounds like the simple answer is simply to replace the decoder... however, if you want to explore the failed chip in more detail... which I personally enjoy doing... happy to offer further ideas and input... and sorry to ask... but could you remind me please... do you have a digital multimeter which can be used to measure resistance?

Take care,

C

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No need for apologies mate, it is all good, I appreciate the help if it be good or bad. Yes I do have a digital multimeter but I lack the brain power to make sense of it but with directions I should be able to work it out if not too hard to explain for yourself.

The problem I find is my bad eyesight and trembling hands, oh also my stubby fat fingers lol

I include here a photo of multi-meter

Digitech QM1523 Multi-Meter

I will check with PO (Post Office) tomorrow for postage price. I have a busy start chasing down specialists, MRI's, CT Scans etc. While I am here what are your prices Greg.

If you wish to provide prices via messenger that is fine, I assume prices would change from chip to chip along with return postage etc.

I do have the dig. multi-meter ready and waiting for further instructions. TIA also

ok,

1. manually change the flipper to change lane,

2. held car rear off track and run through IR and the lane change flipper changes to straight ahead position

3. tried multiple times, different flipper, the same occurs in step 1 above

4. placing the car on the track it powers up full speed hence having to hold rear of car off track

5. motor and gears are all connected, just removing the digital chip

6. tested digital chip in another car, the same thing occurs

7. install known working chip in same car and it runs properly on the track and with hand controller