H & M Walkabout Controller Help

[bill7437]

I have had two of these excellent controllers for a number of years as an adjunct to my main panel enabling me to operate my layout from the front. After a recent rewire of my layout I realised that I had stupidly connected to the output wires on the Walkabouts a 16volt AC input and needless to say neither controller will now operate. There is a possibility that the output transistors have been blown but other damage may have been caused. I would like to get these repaired or replaced. Can any reader of this forum offer any help with a competant and reasonably priced repairer or offer the sale of either one or two working replacements.

[Bigmet]

Hopefully you will find someone with working s/h to sell. Repair is problematic because the necessary components are simply not to be found, microelectronics have swept all before them. (Ironically the vast stockpile of thermionic valves left when discrete solid state components made them obsolete, means valves are still very much available.)

Dare I suggest that before laying out any cash on s/h, it would be worth looking at currently marketed alternatives, Gaugemaster the usual suspect in the UK when it comes to DC. Or there's Demonic Commands Coercion with a just a single cordless handset required for global domination of the decoder fitted slaves...

[Mountain]

This guy mentions that he has had his repaired. I have never had a walkabout, but I have had a H&M 3000 in the past (Which was repaired) and have fairly recently bought another.

For interest to those who don't know about these lovely controllers, the walkabout is a much simplified version of the H&M 3000 that was designed to fit in the hand instead of the desk console 3000. The walkabouts were designed to either operate as a handheld slave to the H&M 3000 or independently via a separate transformer.

https://youtu.be/a0TgvzH8AOo

I hope this helps.


[Just a note to anyone who as seen information on the internet of the Hammant & Morgan 3000, there seems to be a lot of people under the impression that it is a double controller. It is NOT. It powers a single track 12V D.C. output (With an accessory output of 16V A.C.). I thought I would mention this because people repeat what they assume to be correct even though they have never actually owned or tried one].

[Mountain]

Also came across this the other day.

https://handem.uk/pages/the-repair-page

[Bigmet]

Use of 'The Repair Shop' branding is misrepresentation, unless of course this operation is part of that by now well known televised outfit.

[Bufferstop]

At least the exterior shots for that programme are filmed at the Weal and Downland Museum. Does anyone who's visited or lives near know if the also occupy the Barn. I would have thought not as it would require making changes to the fabric, of a historic, though transplanted, building.
They are just about OK with their name as H&M were swallowed up by Hornby which was how Simon K first came to work for them, they use the prefix HM for their more expensive controllers, but Gaugemaster have occupied the position that H&M once covered.

[End2end]

Just a note to anyone who as seen information on the internet of the Hammant & Morgan 3000, there seems to be a lot of people under the impression that it is a double controller. It is NOT. It powers a single track 12V D.C. output (With an accessory output of 16V A.C.). I thought I would mention this because people repeat what they assume to be correct even though they have never actually owned or tried one.

I think people may be confusing it with the Hornby HM 2000 and 4000 controllers. Both of which are double/twin controllers.
Thanks
End2end

[TomTom]

I have recently resurrected my original 3000, after buying a Morley, which is in itself a very good and affordable option, to see how they compared, and realised how good the H&M 3000 and Walkabout was. What put me off the 3000 was its clunky outline and I shifted to a panel controller for convenience. My Walkabout suffered some sort of failure and is lying around somewhere, but inspired by how well it manages modern mechanisms I did an ebay hunt and acquired another 3000 and a couple of handheld ones for next to nothing, and to my delight, they all were in full working order- the 3000 forward reverse switch had to be joggled to begin with to make contact but it settled down before I resorted to opening and contact cleaner. They really are superb controllers and I am so pleased they are back in action. They do baulk at one or two coreless motors, so the Morley is wired in for them, although some work well with them. It might be worth a trawl round shows or ebay to acquire some as they seem to have been forgotten nowadays - it is more or less forty years since they appeared... and generate little interest when they do pop up.

[Mountain]

Here is mine. I actually have not tested this one out on a loco as yet (Packing things for a house move and not that long ago bought this one for nostalgia) but I used to own one of these about 30 years ago. I briefly tested mine without a loco (Looking at the track power indicator) and I briefly short circuited to test the overload protection. This one did do something curious which my old one did not do. Its overload would not reset the power back on unless I switched on and off the auto power regulator which was odd, and I tried this two or three times with the same odd result! Looking at the track power LED, all seems to be fine as I tried its various functions.
But I thought it was good to show a picture. I did think about buying another as two of these together really do look the part! Never had two. One day...

(Hope the origional poster has found somewhere to have his Walkabouts fixed as they are nice units. If I can think of anywhere I will add it here).

[Bufferstop]

I'm not surprised the newer version of the 3000 has a latching overload cut out, subjecting the unit's output stages and the wiring to repeated short circuits to see if the fault has been cleared might have been OK in H&M's earlier days but requiring some form of reset action is always preferable. My first (Hornby Dublo) controller had a stone age version a big red button which popped out with an almighty bang, letting you know for sure you had a short circuit.

[Mountain]

I'm not surprised the newer version of the 3000 has a latching overload cut out, subjecting the unit's output stages and the wiring to repeated short circuits to see if the fault has been cleared might have been OK in H&M's earlier days but requiring some form of reset action is always preferable. My first (Hornby Dublo) controller had a stone age version a big red button which popped out with an almighty bang, letting you know for sure you had a short circuit.

They were only made a few years. The cutout should reset as soon as the short circuit has been removed like the one I used to own did. Should not reset when an unrelated switch is switched so guessing something maybe touching something it shouldn't. Everything else seems to work ok, though I need to check the proper way by running a loco to be sure.