KATO motors


I have a few of the older Katos and they've all had the same problems.
ie: loosing power pickup from the brass strip which I believe has been rectified in the newer issues; circuit boards frying for no apparent reason; and trucks catching the frame on curves, which Kato replaced the side frames on four units!
Otherwise the switch to DCC was a snap by just plugging in the 8 pin harness.
 
Do you know if those issues are specific to KATO SD40's only ?

The other thread noted isolation of the motors, Tech at Digitrax told me they were already isolated. I did note the brass strip on the chassie sides.

I guess my only option at this point is to call KATO on Monday and see what they can do. I do want them to work correctly an of course the repair will be on my dime. I just hope they can repair them.
 
On my Kato 4 axle units I had no problems, just plugged them in and played as the saying goes, no isolation required.
I put the Digitrax sound unit into a Kato F40PH, again plugged and played, no worries.
AC4400's and such are too new for me so no experience with those.
As I said, I think the newer SD40's have been revamped.
Maybe someone can varify this?
 
You can tell if the motor is isolated with an ohmmeter. Assuming you have one available, put the meter on it and find out for sure.
 
Have an ohmmeter, what type of reading should I be looking for ?

Called KATO today, left message.....

Spoke with the only hobby shop in KC today, guy said the brass clips that secure the board on top of the motor are the problem. These clips secure the long brass strip the run on both sides of the chassie as well. All are connected. One side is too long and its bent over the board and they become loose which leads to the power loss. Makes sense because the bundle of wires associated with the decoder would create pressure when you put the body on. He said clip the longer brass strip down after you solder.

He also said this was the fix KATO did, any thoughts ???


Me thinks its best to speak w/human intel at KATO first, if the respond.
 
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If the motor isn't isolated from the frame, you should see voltage at some point in the frame when you apply voltage to the motor. The coupler frame mounts are the best place to check. Sounds like you may have figured out the problem although I suspect the too long brass strip is actually causing a short that's in turn causing the power loss. You should talk to a human at Kato and confim the problem and the fix. Let us know what you find out.
 
Well KATO gave me the news, there are problems specific to the first runs of SD40-2's. For some reason it did not affect all engines but they cannot really isolate what runs were affected. They do sell a hard wire kit that can fix them with but first need to make sure its the motor and not the decoder. Taking to DC and seeing if the problem still exists is the first thing to do.

They also said they had some similar issues with the MAC 90's as well. Real happy to hear that b/c I own some of them too!!!! Plug & play.....not

Frankly, I'm really dissapointed in this. At the end of the day its in my lap, but I was never informed that warranty work could have been done if only informed by the hobby shop I purchased from. To have to jack around with them just to get them to run after there respective costs is a real pisser.

Anyway, I just wanted to pass along this info, perhaps it will help someone else.
 
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Is this the 'clamp lying over the circuit board trace' problem? I think I read about that one for one of their models, and it mighta been the 90/43 MAC model since I have one of those as well.

Kennedy
 
The support I spoke with yesterday would not confirm that was the specific problem, only that pressure of the shell in combination with a decoder MAY be causing the issue. Out of the 9 SD40-2' that I have (3) new in the box units have issues running under regular DC power and are shorting out. (3) others with decoders are running fine at this point with the remaining other (3) with decoders experencing shorts when the shell is installed yet running fine w/o the shell. When I take the decoders out of these last 3 aforemention engines they won't run at all in DC. I was told to call back after I found out which motors were the problems and perhaps I can get them to fix them that are new in the box.

With respect to the MACs, I was told the retainers (clips I assume) were rubbing into the boards and causing some shorts. Sound like the prob. to me as you describe and I had heard as well.

While running one of the problem engines w/o a shell I put some pressure on one of these brass retainers on the side and it immeadiatley died, which tells me no amount of soldering to the clip ends on the top of the board will fix it and the hard wiring kit is the solution I guess
 
The SD40-2's that had the problem can be hardwired and the problem is therefore fixed. here is a good link showing how to hardwire a SD40-2.

The first run of MAC's, with the exception of the SD70, had a problem when converting to DCC. There was a clip on the wrong side of the board, IIRC. Before KATO updated thier site, it had directions on how to fix it. I can't find the directions on the new site.

-Smoke
 
Smoke said:
The SD40-2's that had the problem can be hardwired and the problem is therefore fixed. here is a good link showing how to hardwire a SD40-2.
Click to expand...

Don't see a link on the SD 40-2's ???


Perhaps I was just lucky on the MACS as mine all ran w/o interuption in regular DC. I guess the question is now, how long will they run. I remember seeing something on their site as well just last week or so and no cannot find it as well.
 
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