Hello Tech Support?

Yes, if at first you don't succeed, give up, walk away and find a new hobby,
No hang on, that's not what I meant to write. Damn predictive text.
If at first you don't suceed , contact eBay and register a complaint against a dodgey seller.

 

The good news is I fixed it using my superior skills and extensive knowledge of band aids.
The truth is although I bought it thinking I could service it, rechip it, add lights to it, then sell it, i would not sell this to anyone as it would be morally reprehensible. In future if I was thinking about buying and selling I would do it with a brand new loco from Hattons that I know is going to be immaculate!

 

Thanks Kim for posting the photo of some of my earlier work where I was not using a soldering iron, opting for bandaids instead. As you well know the failure rate was becoming quite high and very rarely getting below 99% if I'm totally honest.
Anyway the good news is I bought myself one of them Soldering Iron thingys and to be up front with you I had more success with the band aids. Is it absolutely necessary to have electricity connected at the tent where I live or is it just a nicety? Anyway I digress, so i managed to melt the solder by heating the Soldering iron up with a candle and am pretty happy with how it has worked out.
Again I thank you for your words of encouragement and for everything you have taught me about electrothingimebobs.

 

G'day Kim, I am so glad that the diesel unit arrived to you safely in Perth, i was concerned that it may not pass the explosives trace test at the airport as i did use actual diesel to weather the engine as i find nothing quite comes up to standard as does the real thing for smell, feel and look. Despite having to purchase a minimum of 5 litres of diesel from the service station I did not charge you any extra on top of my standard fee and I feel very confident that I will be able to use the remaining 4.99999 litres of diesel on other projects, such as my realistic bonfire diorama which I am currently planning.

Please do not use the blow torch and lump hammer yourself as they should only be used by a professional operator such as myself who has been trained in the use of said equipment. I would hate to think that you could harm yourself through incorrect useage.

Unfortunately at the moment I am only able to recreate the blue smoke starting effect once per sound decoder and am, if i can be candid, having trouble replicating it acurately on multiple occasions, but the important thing is that you were happy and indeed moved to tears by the effect once.

As for your handset fault, I will have a good think about the possible causes of the fault and suggest that you take time to ruminate upon your actions and check that all leads are plugged in and that you have still got the power connected to the controller and indeed to the campervan in middle of road in which you are currently residing. I used to dream of living in
campervan in middle of road.

Regards Steve

 

I've removed the bandaids and the little Q1'has healed up quite nicely.

 

After a good five hours working on the loco today I have finally got it running. I have fitted two white nano led lights on the front, and one amber for the flicker fire box. I'm using a Hattons chip and surprisingly I was able to code the CV for the headlamps to stay on when moving forward or in reverse. This is the first chip that has ever successfully done this.
The process was not without issues and I had to resolder a number of joints during the afternoon as the wires broke away. I put this down to the decoder plug being at least 10 years old and the soldered joints not as good as they should have been.
Anyway its all done now. A few cosmetic things to fix up, but otherwise it is finished.

 

Lights are in and with the wheels have been given a very good clean on the tender we have a perfect runner.
I pulled the wheels off and then removed one wheel, stuck the axle into the drill and spun it while sanding the wheel with 1000 grade sandpaper.Repeated for the other wheels and then reassembled them. Perfectly clean!!!

 

I've put some new photos up of the rebuild. See the previous two posts.