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Enquiry about Damaged Kato power pack / Tomix pick up wheels


JR 500系

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Hi people!

 

Need some advice and assistance from you guys~

 

There's two questions actually, but i thought i'll just place them in one single thread for easier reading ~

 

Question 1 : Damaged Kato power Pack

 

Something bad happened last night in Takahashi town when 4 godzillas invaded...

 

Luckily for me, all the trains survived the 'attack'... However, something strange happened. As Kato power packs are using 110V, i have a step-down voltage convertor that has never failed me till date suddenly broke down last night, and i think that caused 220V from the mains to surge into the power pack. There was no smell, no sound, no anything... Just suddenly there were no operational lights... I made a check and discovered ONLY the power pack and the step-down convertor was damaged. The cable and the adaptor from Kato is still working well as i tested it on the other Kato power pack that i have. Strange that i thought the adaptor would be the first to go, but instead the power pack went 'kaput'... Now i have reasons to get that Kato Hayabusa starter set that i always wanted...

 

Question 2 : Tomix pickup wheels

 

Recently, i bought some illumi interior lights to light up my Tomix shinkansens... While i was attempting to fix them in, i discovered some of my shinksansens, especially the older types like the Tomix 92639 300 series and the Tomix 92083 500 series have no electric wheel pickups... That means the interior lights would not be able to work... Can i know how to go about solving this? I do understand there are parts available to convert normal wheels to electric pickup wheels, but i'm confused which is compatible with the ones i require.

 

 

Manay thanks for your assistance! Cheers!

  

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You may have blown the circuit breaker on the power pack. Did you try unplugging it and plugging it in again?

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Mr JR500,

 

So sorry to hear about your power supply accident.  Confucius say "A $300 picture tube will protect a 30¢ fuse by blowing first!"  So it is most fortunate that no train is lost, right?

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Thanks guys for the replies!

 

I tried all the possibilities; connecting the 'spolit' adaptor to my working controller and it works. connecting the 'spolit' adaptor to my spolit working controller and it doesn't work. connecting the 'good' adaptor to my 'spolit' controller and it doesn't work. connecting the 'good' adaptor to my 'good' working controller and it works. So it had to be the controller's fault...

 

POMU got the jackpot! Thank you!

 

I was so glad when i hit the reset button on the rear of the controller and saw the light back on! Great news the controller is working fine again! I think the controller trip as i am confirmed that there was 220V in the current at one time, as the voltage convertor is definately blown and spolit. It's really fortunate that Kato has a switch to prevent over-surge of current into the circuits, and even a circuit breaker that you can 'switch' back the current on!

 

That's really cool now that my controller is back in action. I just need a new BETTER voltage convertor...  On the other hand... I missed my excuse of buying that Kato E-5 Hayabusa starter set for the controller AND the E5...

 

Now for the Tomix wheels, can anyone provide some info on this? Thanks!  

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isnt it nice when a little red button fixes everything?! feels like you are part of hitch hikers guide!

 

jeff

  • Like 1
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I remember when one of my packs "died" and it took me a couple of days to think that there might be a circuit breaker somewhere.  Been there, done that.

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isnt it nice when a little red button fixes everything?! feels like you are part of hitch hikers guide!

 

jeff

Nothing like the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe to solve problems !  :-) 

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Thanks guys for the replies!

 

I tried all the possibilities; connecting the 'spolit' adaptor to my working controller and it works. connecting the 'spolit' adaptor to my spolit working controller and it doesn't work. connecting the 'good' adaptor to my 'spolit' controller and it doesn't work. connecting the 'good' adaptor to my 'good' working controller and it works. So it had to be the controller's fault...

 

POMU got the jackpot! Thank you!

 

I was so glad when i hit the reset button on the rear of the controller and saw the light back on! Great news the controller is working fine again! I think the controller trip as i am confirmed that there was 220V in the current at one time, as the voltage convertor is definately blown and spolit. It's really fortunate that Kato has a switch to prevent over-surge of current into the circuits, and even a circuit breaker that you can 'switch' back the current on!

 

That's really cool now that my controller is back in action. I just need a new BETTER voltage convertor...  On the other hand... I missed my excuse of buying that Kato E-5 Hayabusa starter set for the controller AND the E5...

 

Now for the Tomix wheels, can anyone provide some info on this? Thanks!  

Your Welcome.

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Oh yes the wonderful little red button that does wonders~~

 

Anyone has any info on the Tomix wheel pickups? Cant bear having those illumi lights but not being able to light them up...

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jr

 

dont you wish everything (and everybody) had a little red button! would make life simpler! broken, push the button. cranky, push the button.

 

the other thing with circuit breakers like this is that even if pushing it does not fix it sometimes opening it up and jumping the circuit breaker and voila it works as the circuit breaker did its job of blowing, sacrificing itself in the process for the good of everything down stream!

 

ill dig out my tomix parts catalog, i think i remember just the folded sheet metal pickups that fit in the trucks to wipe the wheels and then poke up to contact the chassis pickups were listed. does the chassis have the arcs cut in the bottom on either side of the truck pin and the metal contacts there?

 

jeff

Edited by cteno4
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@ Jeff: Thanks for the reply! Please see below attached picture i took yesterday... One picture is from the 300 series, the other from the 500 series that i have.

 

The wheel pickups shown on the left are from the front cars; i.e. for head/ tail lights pickups.

 

The wheel pickups missing shown on the right are from the other cars, which i need to install pickups into them to enable interior lighting.

 

Can i know which parts are suitable to enable interior lighting for these? Thanks in advance!  

post-819-0-74748800-1370832263_thumb.jpg

post-819-0-17149300-1370832277_thumb.jpg

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On the ones w/o the springs or pickups you should pull the truck off and make sure there is the metal pickup on the underside of the chassis on either side of the bolster pin socket. It looks to be there in the pictures thru the pickup whole in the truck.

 

It looks like you need the axle pickup strips and the springs. The strips rub in the channel on the axles and rest on the springs that then transfer the power into the chassis pickups.

 

Ill look for the catalog.

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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Hi there! 

 

I'm still trying to find out which parts are required for converting my Tomix 92083 500 series add-on set to have the pickup on the wheel for interior lighting.... The steel pieces surrounding the wheels are missing, and is are the two little springs that transfer current from the wheel pickup to the metal strips directly beneath the car. I can't seem to find which are the right parts to order to replace these bogies so that i can wire up my 500 for interior lighting... 

 

Now my 500 looks so weird with 4 cars with interior lights and 4 cars without.... 

 

Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks in advance! 

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JR500,

 

There are two systems for power pickup: old one, which was on your left photo and new one - on the right photo. In the past, the springs and metal strips were part of lighting kit but you can also buy it separately. In case of the new system, the collectors are already pre-installed in all bogies (as in your right photo) and therefore are not included in lighting kits. 

Two more important things. The new power collecting system requires different wheels - see the difference on the photo. And, it is much better as wheels are placed in metal strips instead of plastic hole of the bogie which means that wheel does much less resistance and the car is much easier to pull.

 

Funny, that I plan doing the same with my old Tomix JR500 set, but I plan to change the old system into new one. The only problem is that I can't find in any catalog/shop those black metal strips for new collectors. Any help would be appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

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yeah i am not sure i have seen just the pickups. usually you get the whole truck replacement part from kato and tomix. 

 

i cant find my tomix parts catalog, guess i lent it out and forgot who to! ill keep looking and ask around the usual suspects around here to see if i lent it out.

 

i would check with loco1hobbies, modeltrainplus or fmodels.jp about seeing if you can order the newer truck sets thru them from tomix as you will need to buy a few and lots of time shops may only have one or two of these sets in stock. warning they aint cheap, like $5-8 for two trucks.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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On the power issue.  Would it not be better to get the correct transformer rather than using a convertor?

 

katoflw,

 

kato doesnt sell just the transformer by itself and unfortunately they did not go for a universal wall wart transformer so there is a japan 100v, NA 120v, and a 220/240v. it puts out 15vac which is a very odd transformer and not something you can easily buy an aftermarket one to adapt. 

 

jeff

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i had to buy 2 power adaptor for my controllers as japanese and american ones dont work in oz.  cannot see why it would be different in any other 1st world country.

Edited by katoftw
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katoflw,

 

you mean you were able to buy just the wall wart transformer for your kato controller? Ive never seen them sold separately.

 

what do you mean by a power adapter? a new wall wart transformer or 230 to 120v converter?

 

jeff

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Based on what I see on these pages:

http://miyabirw.exblog.jp/8835687
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/makkun314159265358979323846264/39972756.html
the kato power packs should work with any 12-16V AC or DC wall adapters...

 

Afaik the basic controller contains:

-a diode bridge

-a resettable fuse

-a linear regulator chip (variable resistor controlled, with a fixed resistor setting the base voltage)

-a led with a resistor (power indicator)

-a dptt switch for forward-stop-reverse

-some connectors

 

Can someone confirm this? If they do work, then most people could do away with voltage converters and original adapters and just use simple wall adapters.

Edited by kvp
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Yep from the looks of it a 12-16v dc power supply should work. Sure ken will chime in here with some more insights.

 

Did not realize it was as simple ciricuit as it appears to be!

 

Won't get the ac acc output though...

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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Thanks guys for the replies. I goggled and read from my 500 series manual that the 動力台車 or power truck it uses is the Tomix 0590 and 0591, one of which is a hook the other a ring:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10073852

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10073853

 

Can i ask if that is correct? 

 

If it is, at least i have a part number to start looking for ~ As Jeff mention, they are not cheap... Like US$5-6 one truck! I have 4 carriages to change, so that's 2x4 = 8 trucks x US$6 almost US$48 for just interior lighting the train... And that's before the interior lighting cost itself... 

 

Seems like a need to reconsider the need... 

 

post-819-0-38105200-1386835808_thumb.jpg

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JR500,

 

The links you provided are to power bogies. My understanding is that they are good only for motor car, and if I can see correctly they have old type of power pickup. I can see two solutions in your case:

1. you stay with old system and buy pickup strips + springs. They are listed by tomix as parts so you should be able to buy them

2. you move to new system and then have to buy bogies as there are no parts (from what ctneo4 suggested). Different bogies for motor car and trailers.

 

If you go with 1. how many strips and springs do you need? I guess I have some spare so could possibly send you if you wish.

 

Thanks,

 

P.S.

The bogies for trailer car should be much cheaper.

Edited by Sinus
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