Problem with Kato Throttle/Powerpack

[TheHeadSage]

Hello! Apologies if I put this in the wrong place.

Sometime ago, I got the Kato M2 starter set, which came with a throttle/powerpack (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10040265). At first it was working great, with the throttle part working correctly.

However, recently, it's developed a problem where there are two speeds. "Fast" and "So fast the train violently derails on curves". The Fast speed applies when the throttle is at 0, all the way to the red bit. When you move the throttle into the red bit, you get the second speed.

Is there an easy way to fix this?

[CaptOblivious]

Hello! Apologies if I put this in the wrong place.

Sometime ago, I got the Kato M2 starter set, which came with a throttle/powerpack (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10040265). At first it was working great, with the throttle part working correctly.

However, recently, it's developed a problem where there are two speeds. "Fast" and "So fast the train violently derails on curves". The Fast speed applies when the throttle is at 0, all the way to the red bit. When you move the throttle into the red bit, you get the second speed.

Is there an easy way to fix this?

Yes: Send it off to Kato USA for repair! It sounds like a fairly major electronics issue, and not knowing anything about the internals, I'm guessing it's not going to be easy. Unless you know your way around a soldering iron and a 7812, in which case you might find the challenge interesting. Otherwise, I'd send it off for repair.

That sucks! :( Do you at least have a backup throttle you can use? (I'm guessing no?)

[TheHeadSage]

Yeah, I wouldn't be confident with ripping the box open and playing with my soldering iron. So it looks like I'll ship it off to the USA for repairs. For now this just provides added incentive to install a DCC decoder in my Tsubame Shinkansen set so I can use it with my Digitrax throttle. So there's the bright side of things :D

[CaptOblivious]

That's the spirit!

In the meantime, you can run your Tsubame as is on a Digitrax system at address 00. It will make a sound to hurt your ears, but it's perfectly safe (so long as the output voltage, if selectable, is set to 'N').

[KenS]

That's definitely some kind of broken throttle (or else you plugged a 110 Volt adapter into a 220v main).  I have three Kato power packs, and all of them work very smoothly.

It's worth it to see if they will repair it, although between postage and repair costs, it may come out that a new one from a local store would cost less.

[The_Ghan]

Sage,

Contact your vendor.  If it was Hobby Search they might prefer that it go through them.  Of all the stuff I've bought I've been lucky.  I've only had one dud item - a Tomix electric point. Hobby Search sent me a replacement.  I binned the faulty unit.

Good luck.

Cheers

The_Ghan