Ripley's TnA (Talk n Action) Repair Thread

[ripley802]

Right then, as far as I can see if the power is 4.5v the resistors will be dropping the voltage down to a suitable level, as you know most of our trains run off of 1.5v, I imagine the resistors will drop the bolts to a similar level, not only will it reduce the volts, it will increase the resistance in the motor circuit. The transistor on the circuit board will be a black three pronged device, this acts as a switch to control the power on to the motor, these transistors can't handle much current, I imagine by increasing the resistance you reduce the amount of current the transistor has to deal with, if you remove the resistors yes I'm sure it will run faster but I don't know how long the transistor will last! The capacitor in the motor is part of the transistor protection as well as noise suppression, as I said before the capacitor acts as a buffer in the power circuit, it charges up then if the motor starts to struggle it discharges assisting this power supply, it just helps to maintain the motor. Also because it works as balance it helps when power is switched on and off on the transistor, it's job will be to buffer the transistor switch by prevebting a voltage spike when the transistor switches off - in industrial applications they would be used to suppress sparks on contact tips,

As for bursts of speed, I'm not sure, Do all the talk & action engine nes do this?

Thanks Tramp, excellent information and this this makes a lot more sense now. It is odd, some do not have the resistors, but others do. It looks like most have the two transistors and most seem to have he capacitor on the motor.

All of the talk n Action have a boost in power when going over a few pieces of track.

BTW, the one I was working on that had the contact on the board that came off for the motor, I traced down where it looked like it went on the board etching but no luck when trying it there. Maybe I missed a path or something or maybe it goes to the transistor pin possibly. I did however connect it to the positive coming in from the board and it worked fine. The bad news is, after connecting everything and getting it all back together I ran it a few times around the track and now there is no sound. I took it back apart and replaced the speaker but no luck for this one. I replaced one of the transistors thinking maybe one was for the motor and one for sound, but may have picked the wrong one or maybe that is not even the issue. Very odd and these things are very touchy..