Joined: 29/01/2006(UTC)
Posts: 171
Location: Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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Greetings, Coookie, Thanks for such a nice letter of encouragement! You should know that I am WELL aware of the fact that this happened to you last year, and it made a deep impression on me. So much so that I mentally filed away all your documentation at the time, knowing that someday I would need it. And sure enough... it came to pass. I have done very tiny soldering work before - for example on an ESU Lokpilot board! So I'm confident that, armed with your instructions, and Peter's, via J.J. , I could replace the transistors. As luck would have it though, my best buddy here is an electrical engineeer and he's looking forward to this little project as a diversion from his job in the university's computer science department. But... I gotta ask........ Why , oh why such a poorly designed, poorly labeled connector on the IB? It's so incredibly easy to short it out - one time for me, it was a wire "whisker". Otherwise, the IB has been a marvel of engineering, at least in my own humble opinion. I think I bought mine around 1999 or so. What's amazing to me is how Andrea S., et. al. future-proofed this device so well. They were waaay ahead of their time, imho. I had no spare dough in those days, since I was raising boy and girl twins, but years and years later, I finally got around to using the many features, i.e. the multi-protocol capabilities, the serial port for computer control, and the loco net for iPod Touch/JMRI control. But at least 10 years had gone by, practically a Mezozoic or Pleistoceine age. Your idea on a quick-replace socket is an EXCELLENT ONE! I'll have to suggest that to my friend. But also.... what about the possiblity of some in-line, fast acting fuses to protect this output stage? Oh..... I gotta ask you to either affirm or quash a story I heard about New Zealanders, a long time ago. I read that they were among the few people on earth that still liked Americans. You obviously harbor no anti-Yanqui sentiments, but what about New Zealanders in general?? Thanks again for the encouragement, Tom Originally Posted by: cookee_nz  Originally Posted by: tommyheadleycox Want to see a sad couple of photos? Click below! I connected my Intellibox backwards. 18VAC to the output stage! YOW! Dumb, dumb, dumb. I let the smoke out, that's for sure.
Tommy Hi Tommy, I feel your pain, happened to me too. If it's any consolation, and if the damage is not too severe it may be relatively easy to repair. Take a look at this thread from last year where I fixed mine with blown output transistors.... https://www.marklin-user...n--Voltage---BUGGER.aspxGood luck - if you have access to a good vacuum de-soldering station that would be best, or if you have an electronics repair shop handy you may be able to ask them to remove them for you. Otherwise if you are a competent home-hobbyist, my method was to snip the legs off at the base of the device, then unsolder each leg and simply pull through the PCB. Don't force it, and use a good fine tip iron, preferably temperature-controlled. I suggest getting new plastic spacers and insulator pads when you buy the replacement devices, and if you plan to make a habit of crossing the beams (didn't you learn anything from Ghostbusters?), maybe solder in a socket onto the PCB for easy future replacements  OK, seriously, it's not that hard if you are feeling confident with PCB repairs, otherwise I suggest passing on to someone experienced. You are not the first and certainly won't be the last, it's a pity a fast-acting overload cutout was not put in the design but I guess they expected us dummkopf users to never make a mistake. Good luck with it Regards Cookee NZ
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