Model Railroading > Odd Issue. Genesis Motor.

I had an odd issue with a Genesis GP38-2 just after New Years.  The unit had been running fine for half an hour, then suddenly stopped and both  front and rear headlights were flashing at a steady rate. Soundtraxx Tsunami 2 user guide indicates that this is a speed step 14 error. I don't run in speed step 14 so that was odd. Anyway, reset and the locomotive ran for a few more minutes and repeated the same error code. This time it stayed unresponsive, even after a forced decoder reset and DCC system reset.

Emailed Soundtraxx and they hadn't seen this issue. They had me send the decoder in and we're kind enough to check it out. Service didn't find an issue and sent it back.

Same issue after reinstalling original decoder. Went and installed a new 21 pin TSU2 and noticed very poor performance but no error code.

Long story short, after digging in I found the motor to be extremely weak which manifest itself as a speed step 14 error. Athearn is back ordered on Genesis motors but I found a Genesis RTR retrofit motor on eBay that solved the problem.

Has anyone else here have a motor cause issues with a decoder before?

---

Chris:

Though not very common, it is a known issue with Athearn Genesis motors. There are posts here on Trainorders about it.

Victor Baird

Thanks for sharing your misadventures and learnings with us, Chris.
I've been struggling today with a Tsunami II installed in a Walthers GP35.  I abandoned the matter and will send the unit to my "electirican".
Tim Costello

My tale of woe has been numerous motors changing to low speed and high current. There's been numerous episodes of blaming the drive line but ending up with the same symptoms. I did try a few Athearn motor swaps including Genisis motors but things just seem to be strange.

The whole question about DCC seems to point to the last power stage before the motor. That stage would have a power limit but don't know if it self limits or what, there is a current limit listed on decoders btw. Motors can work just fine with pulsed DC or pure DC. Perhaps there is something about the particular motor design and the waveform, or amount of undesired voltage hitting the motor. But that's not my field of study, so far all I've heard is ' it should work just fine '. From raw statistics older quality motors seem to not have the same issue. 

Then I ran into a batch of Scale Trains six axle models that ran beautifully and then all turned to low rpm and high current within a few weeks of each other. ST has been very responsive with replacement motors, sometimes two or three new motors in the same frame. The point being the symptoms and cure being proved effective, not a decoder or driveline problem.

There's a few other discussion sites where people ask about motors going soft with most folks just replacing motors, when they can find them. One of the sites had a guy pull out the magnets and replace them with stronger magnets and claim victory. I don't know much about magnets so I'll try that trick some other day.

In the mean time I've reached out and placed them on the shelf until some dependable motors hit the market.

hth.

 

Seems like bad motors have been a more common issue in the past few years, Bowser, ScaleTrains, Intermountain have all had runs with bad motor. I have some Athearn RTR units from several years ago have had issues with motors too.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Bad motors from China have affected every manufacturer it seems. Mostly due to poor magnet material from what I understand. This is the first one I've had, as Clive termed it, gone soft on me. Interesting that Athearn has them on back order. Supply chain issues? Or new design/ manufacture motors?

From what I've been reading only Bowser and ST seem to acknowledge something is going on, Bowser says it's not the motor but the new motors are different than the old motors and work really good, while ST hands out motors. I don't get the feeling there's a general re-design that will pop onto the market soon, partly because the broad improvements in magnets in the past decades depends on strategic minerals that are hot topics in the past year or so.

Most of the motors we see are re-purposed from the Auto industry or perhaps Printers or similar. 

 

TCnR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> From what I've been reading only Bowser and ST
> seem to acknowledge something is going on, Bowser
> says it's not the motor but the new motors are
> different than the old motors and work really
> good, while ST hands out motors. I don't get the
> feeling there's a general re-design that will pop
> onto the market soon, partly because the broad
> improvements in magnets in the past decades
> depends on strategic minerals that are hot topics
> in the past year or so.
>
> Most of the motors we see are re-purposed from the
> Auto industry or perhaps Printers or similar. 
>


Hmm, no printers or copiers. They use stepper motors as registration is vital. Those guys also have the cachet to demand high quality. Nearly every other high end use is going or has gone to coreless motors so I'm honestly a bit stumped as to who would spec these motors anymore. Maybe that's part of the problem.

Yikes. Not only are Athearn Genesis motors back ordered until at least August, so are their LED's.