Today I went to power on my layout in order to test some new turnouts that are being installed. Imagine my horror when my CS2 appeared to be dead.....

It worked fine last time I had the layout powered up (a couple of weeks ago).

To cut the story short, I tried one of the power supplies powering one of my 60174 boosters (happens to be an ESU 90va Power Supply), and to my relief the CS2 powered up.

That cast suspicion on my 60061 power supply, which after some testing is confirmed as being dead. It was also warm to the touch on both sides, possibly warmer than normal.

I'm wondering if anyone has ever attempted to repair one of these supplies. It seems to be a mission just to even get it opened as there are no screws holding it together. I suspect it is clipped firmly together but have no idea whether it is designed to come apart, or is a sealed unit meant to be thrown away when it fails.

Dave, bummer it died, does it have the 4-pin plug already attached to connect to the CS2?

If so and you are going to bin it, I'd like to grab the cable, but worth checking with Clappers perhaps, it may be repairable depending on what is wrong with it.

Cookee

Edited by user 21 October 2017 23:58:10(UTC)  | Reason: Typos

Well, that is my second name, so I guess I can let that pass...



There is no voltage at all on any of the pins. Likewise on the track if I use it with a booster.

Pins are not pushed back.

I did wonder about the cable / plug, as from time to time bumping the cable when plugged into the CS2 caused the CS2 to lose power. I had wondered if that was the socket in the CS2, but maybe it was the plug / cable.

Either way, the power supply has been deaded!

I hate hearing these stories of failed switch mode power supplies. I am a child of the 60's where we used iron core transformers for our power supplies and they rarely failed. The lie of the efficiency of switch mode always brings a smile as they do run run cooler and are lighter but must be replaced much more often which negates the efficiency argument.
Maerklin for life is probably on the right track with the faulty capacitor diagnosis. As a professional tech I have on rare occasions opened these sealed units without damaging their casings but wont go into detail of that process here. And of course once you get into these units you really have to know what you are doing as they generally have in the order of 300vdc floating around within. These capacitors are also specific as they are low ESR types (effective series resistance) which reduce the AC ripple to give a clean DC voltage. The electrolyte they use internally will eventually dry out which causes high ripple and subsequent heating of these capacitors.

Dave it sounds like Clappers or Cookee may be savvy enough to repair your unit over there. These power supplies will be very similar to the standard computer power supplies which certainly Cookee will be familiar with. (I hope I haven't "dobbed" you in).

Regards..........Chook.

Now we have our lesson in "Conflict of Interest".

David can get his power supply repaired by Cookee or Clappers, but Cookee has a "Conflict of Interest" as he really wants the cable. Clappers on the other hand has no obvious "Conflict of Interest", so he would be the best person to fix David's power supply. This, my friends, is how Government tendering works. It is not about the best person to do the job, it is the one with no "Conflict of Interest". They lay awake at night with their signed copies of "Yes Minister" to dream up stuff like this..

I would like to hear your process for opening sealed units, at some stage. My findings are that it depends how much glue was used, or else they have been RF welded, both of which are impossible to get apart without sawing at some point.

It could be dried up electrolytics, but that normally starts to show up as intermittent operation of the appliance (in this case a CS2). I have a PVR which I need to dig into to fix flakey operation, and my suspicion is dried up electrolytics in the power supply. If this proves to be the case in the 60061 don't replace just the one, replace all electrolytics as they will all have dried up to some degree. Also use the highest rated temperature ones you can get (generally 105C) as this greatly affects how long they will last.

However a sudden failure like this causes me to think that there is probably a semiconductor failure, typically one of the diodes rectifying the mains voltage, but can often be the transistor doing the switching. This will then also blow the fuse that is there to protect the main supply.

Reasons for such a failure can be many and varied, but often relate to a spike occurring because you happen to switch on just at the peak of the AC waveform. It is also just as likely to be natural failure though - nothing (including iron cored transformers) lasts forever. The transformers mentioned over here caused me problems, as I had to get them 'tropicalised' as they are going to spend something like 75% of their life in storage over the next 25 years, to minimise the likelihood of failure.

When a semiconductor fails then it pays to replace a whole heap of devices as many of them will also have been stressed, which will lead to early failure after repair if not replaced.

And when doing such repairs, make sure you use an isolating transformer to supply the switch mode supply - it is all to easy to inadvertently touch something with lots of volts on it, and that power socket on the wall is as close to an ideal voltage source as you are likely to find anywhere.

Hi,

We'll have more in stock next week...

If you had contacted us...we would be been able to lend you one till yours arrived ; ). I have extras just for this purpose.

Just another benefit for supporting your local dealer, which enables the local dealer to hold stock on the shelf.

We ship every month....if we know by the end of the month and it is not in stock we'll include in.

Kind Regards
Dion

The power source of the DC are limited under the span life.
It´s also difference from the AC trafo.
I use AC trafo for my Lenz digital system.

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PJ, that is one great Layout.
👍

I ended up binning the faulty power supply and purchased 2 more.

I've just noticed from the Lokshop and Marklin websites that 60061 and 60065 are no longer in production.

Does anyone know what is replacing them?