Hi All Just installed 2 of the new ESU Loksound Nanos decoders . Both in N scale Locomotives. One a Kato 9600 steam and the next in a Graham Farish Classs 66. Both ran fine for the first 10 Minutes and then began to run erratic Jerky at all speed settings). This was then followed by a sickening wisp of smoke. Just checking if any one has had a chance to play around with these ne decoders and if anyone has had a similar experience. Martin
Were they installed with a plug connector, or were these hard wired in your models? Did you check all the wiring? Could one of them have touched the frame or other conductive surface? What DCC system are you using? Having two decoders and both of them die at the same time is suspicious.
I've got 4 of these installed in various diesels and no issues so far. Running a loco now (atlas sd35) with my grandson for the past few hours and all is well. Like Mr. Traintec I'm thinking we have some board conductors shorting out on the chassis or over voltage from the DCC controller.
Hi I Am using a Digitrax system with a DCS240 as a command station and a BD150 as a booster. Voltage is set to N scale and reads as 12.3 volts on a RRampeter by DCC Specialties. The Two decoder where hard wired in and tested via a ESU Lokprogrammer. All wiring was check and tested for shorts etc. I Have installed over 30 decoders over the years and have indeed burnt up a few due to my mistakes. But as I said the installs were tested and the ran fine on the layout. Until they started to do a jerky dance and then die. The only thing I can think of apart from a manufacturing fault is the type of motor used. Only had 2. so have not been able to install one in a typical Atlas locomotive.
Maybe check the stall current on the motor? I find it hard to believe that an N scale motor can draw more than an amp, but I guess it could be a possibility. What is the motor output rated on the Nano? I think other ESU decoders have been around 1 amp, so I'm assuming they retained that in the Nano too. Can you see which component is burnt out? I burnt an ESU auxiliary function output when I shorted it, and you could see the resistor was damaged. The decoder still works but just not that function output. Soldering a replacement is next to impossible on the PC board, but it may be possible to at least understand what went wrong.
I use an ESU command station so there is one difference but have tested the voltage to about 13V so I doubt that 12.3 is an issue. Next step if possible is to measure current draw for each loco if you can. Published motor rating is .75A.
Think i will head down the Zimo road, when looking for a very small sound decoder. After losing these two decoders at over $200.0 that could have got me there MXLUFLA programmer.
Well you can not go wrong with either choice of decoders, ESU or ZIMO. They are the only ones I use anymore. From your description, I think you should definitely contact ESU and see about a replacement. It does sound like a defective device situation, the ESU programmer would have detected a short in the installation at programming time. So I think yours were defective to start with. Even the best manufacturers can have a percentage of decoders that pass testing and then have infantile failures. See what they have to say, it could not hurt to find out.
