RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion

Motor over peak current

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atsfguy:
I discussed this issue with Tim Ring and he said the motor over current could  be from a short from the gray wire to the orange wire. I removed the motor from the loco and checked Kapton tape behind the motor, just for luck. After reassembling the engine, it ran OK. Found nothing to absolutely show why I was having problems with it. Now I need to lay more roadbed and track.
Thank you to all who replied.
Cheers,
Cecil

Alan:
Let sleeping dogs lie!  :D

Glad to hear its working for you.

Dean:
The blue box motors draw a lot more current than the new can motors. I would check the gearboxes and maybe give them a lube job. If the engine hasn't been run much, it may loosen up after being run more.
One thing I do with all my engines is do a second motor full load test after they have been run for a few hours. Usually the current drops.

carrson:
I also had the same warning icon appear "motor over current peak" just last week.. It is in an older 2004 genesis sd75 that has been running for over a year with no other issues. I tested the LM3s in another loco with no problems.. the drive line tested free and clear no binding..I ran only the motor on DC and had a little smoke puff out...Took the motor brushes out and one had broken at the tip that goes into the spring...replaced it with another brush (not quite the same size) cleaned the com and noticed that one com wire appeared to have a slightly darker colour than the others which i assume is the burn and reason for the smoke... reassembled the unit, updated the software and full motor load..it was inconsistent with starting... sometimes it would go other times it would not and the "motor over current peak" would appear... my thinking is the darker com wire is causing a dead spot on the com... so I'm going to replace the motor... 

llxlocomotives:
What are you doing when this occurred?  My tests indicate Engine only flat surface high power current to be less than .4 Amps on the BB gold motor, the round jet motor would be close to the 0.7.  As you add train load(cars, grade etc.) this current draw will increase towards the stall current of the voltage.  I have measured the 100% voltage to be 14.2 volts at the top of the track.  The stall current for the gold motor is 1.4 amps and. The round motor is 1.8 amps.  Yours may vary slightly from these levels.  Clearly these motors with load will exceed the 0.7 amp threshold.  Remember, a dirty engine will increase the motor load.  Athearn BB engines are prone to truck tower bearing lock and axle gear cracking like but not as bad as the old P2K units.  These also increase the train load and thus the operating current. 
How should you respond to this message?  It must get down to life of the module.  At 2 amps, the life is zero, it fails.  Below 0.7 the life is indefinite.  Not infinite, but generally long enough to be adequate.  What is happening to the module life between 0.7 and 2.0 amps?  How should you respond?  Should there be another warning?  Say at 1.4 amps?  To keep you from killing the module. 
I have recently installed Rail Pro modules on three older units.  An Athearn Genesis, a P2K, and an Atlas Kato.  During the proof testing of these units, this warning was experienced during part of the test series.  These engines were freshly tuned and were excellent performers on DC.   How should one respond to this message?

Larry
www.llxlocomotives.com

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