LGB stainz smoke gen prob

J

jublybug

Registered
Hello all

Im jim long time railway modeller and veedubber new to gerden railways but im makeing the jump , just got a stainz off evil bay and the smoke dosent seem to work ive striped the loco down and removed the smoke unit ,( brown and yellow wires 18v i beleve )ive put a multi meter across the wires and im not geting any continuity (im gessing i should get somthing?) is there any checks i can do to check it or if it is goosed can i repair it before i splas out on a new one?

Thanks Jim
 
There should be continuity of some kind. The easiest way to test it is to put it across a power unit & put a few drops of oil in it. It should show signs of smoke before you reach full voltage.
 
Right ive had the smoke unit on a gaugemaster controler that i used on a ngauge layout and nothing (same when it was in the loco ) the loco ran and gave the basic chuf sound .

Jim
 
sounds dead to me -
 
Yes its only a 12 volt controler . should i get a continuity reading from the meter? any idea what resistance reading i should get?

Thanks Jim
 
jublybug said:
Hello all

Im jim long time railway modeller and veedubber new to gerden railways but im makeing the jump , just got a stainz off evil bay and the smoke dosent seem to work ive striped the loco down and removed the smoke unit ,( brown and yellow wires 18v i beleve )ive put a multi meter across the wires and im not geting any continuity (im gessing i should get somthing?) is there any checks i can do to check it or if it is goosed can i repair it before i splas out on a new one?

Thanks Jim
Click to expand...
Not that i can add anything to help you, but i can say i had the same problem with one of our locos, smoke unit completely dead. It started working after a year of no use, so saving it is a good idea too :thumbup:
 
It did have what looked like grease in the bottom of it ,im gessing its not been used in a wile .

Sorry to throw a second question in the mix but with a bachmann g gauge controler run a lgb stainz ok? just they are cheeper and theres on in my local shop for £35 quid.

Thanks again Jim
 
Hullo Jim and welcome to the forum.

If you are checking on ohms setting on your multimeter I would expect to see something? If reading zero it could be dead, but if reading infinity, it's definitely dead!

Are you getting an ohms reading at all? Be useful to know what value....
 
jublybug said:
It did have what looked like grease in the bottom of it ,im gessing its not been used in a wile .
Click to expand...

It could be that the metal heat element in the centre has got coated in the grease like substance as you mentioned, which can stop the element from burning the oil. Is it still getting warm when you use it?
 
Right ive been geting dodgy reading but got it now its just going off the scale in ohms im gesing its goosed

Jim
 
The last 18v unit I checked was 32 ohms but they do vary a bit.
 
Check Ebay. They usually come up, although at higher prices than I think they should go for. One problem with the 18 volt smoke units is that in order to get any smoke, you must run the loco at speeds that are way too fast. You could install a 5 volt smoke unit and reduce the voltage to it with some circuitry. I know there will be plenty of diagrams for you to browse if you ask on these forums. Another method would be to check Ebay, again, for a voltage reducer. They all come from China. If I recall the seller is Asia Engineer. It's a very small circuit board that you feed track voltage to and a variable lower voltage comes out the other end. I did this with one of my Stainz locos some time ago. If you would like me to post a photo of the unit, I will have to locate my spare somewhere in my parts drawer.
 
ok so a 5 volt with reducer sounds better is there any upgrade type that anyone would sugest (im a great belever in if it brakes upgrade) and would i have to do same 5volt and reducer?

thanks for puting up with my newby questions Jim
 
I have found that Graupner smoke units, available from Cornwall model boats
http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/model_electronics.html < Link To http://www.cornwallmodelb...model_electronics.html
or Westbourne Model Co. http://www.westbourne-model.co.uk/acatalog/Model_Boat_Electronics.html < Link To http://www.westbourne-mod..._Boat_Electronics.html
are identical Seuthe (who produce the LGB) ones and even have Seuthe's name on some of the documentation. They tend to be more reasonably priced than those sold as LGB spares. The only down side is that the wires are shorter and don't have the LGB connectors, I just cut the wires off the duff LGB unit and solder them to the Seuthe unit wires.
Regardless of make these nominal 5V or 6V units seem to work between 4.5 and 6.5V and in my experience LGB's nominal 5V circuit can have a greater range than that. I use an L7806 voltage regulator chip http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/L7806cv-6v-1a-Volt-Regulator-St-47-3334 < Link To http://www.rapidonline.co...lator-St-47-3334 with a diode bridge and smoothing capacitor to provide 6V.
 
If you just want a standard 18 volt stainz unit i have a few that have come out of scrap stainzs
 
Do the standard 18v smokers give out smoke at a steady speed or do the locos have to be a full chat?

Sparky230 what would you want for one ?

Thanks Jim
 
I also find that the type of smoke oil makes a difference, the newer LGB synthetic blue oil seems to need a higher temperature that the older cleam lemon oil. The older type os still available from Germany but not with the LGB brand.
 
at a reasonable speed u get some puffs, nothing spectactular

if u want one, look Up Hope and Aid direct on the net and donate something to them and i'll throw a couple in post I dont need them they came out of scrap locos all my running stainzs use the older type stacks not the inserts.

pm me your address if ya want them
 
jublybug said:
Do the standard 18v smokers give out smoke at a steady speed or do the locos have to be a full chat?

Thanks Jim
Click to expand...
As Dan (Madman) mentioned earlier you have to run the loco stupidly fast to get an 18V unit to work.
 
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