Railbus 8706 problems

[alangr]

I have been having considerable problems with my Heljan railbus 8706. In short, I cannot find a decoder that will allow me to set and use CV5, the maximum speed. In trying to do so, I have 'blown' a number of Lenz silver decoders. I did find a Bachmann decoder that fitted and allowed the model to run well but I could not set and use the value in CV5.

Has anyone managed to do this with the railbus? I am (trying to) get a response from Heljan on this matter but they do not reply so any comments/help would be appreciated.

[Bigmet]

Usual question, were you able to change the decoder address on programme track successfully? What is the stalled current draw of the model on 12V DC? Heljan have used some pretty current hungry motors in the past.

Personally I would go to the retailer first for an exchange in case you have a model with a duff motor. If the problem persists then contact Howes of Oxford for advice, since this business is the appointed UK service dealer for Heljan

[alangr]

Yes, decoder addressing was OK, but I cannot answer the query on the stalled current draw. Also, I reduced the backstory for convenience and Howes has been involved almost from the start. They even took a new model 'from the box' to see if they could get things to work but to no avail.

What I really need is a reply from Heljan!

Thanks for the thought.

[RFS]

Did you remove the capacitors from the Heljan? In my experience I've had a number of locos with Lenz decoders that were sometimes erratic until the caps were removed.

Also the Lenz decoders have short-circuit and overload protection, so you shouldn't be able to blow one of these decoders. They have a 10-year warranty so if they're no longer working I'd send them back to A&H Models for free replacement.

[alangr]

Thanks;

No, I did not remove any capacitors as the motor is incredibly buried in the model! However, erratic running is the least of my problems. Current draw could be a problem but this was not what rendered the Lenz decoders problematic; something was affected so that the base address could not be read or re-set.

I have just had a comment from someone with similar problems to mine where the use of a Lokpilot decoder 'did the trick'; I am following this up asap!