Skippy's Random Ramblings

In a previous post about Duplo trains I mentioned that I had acquired a dead Duplo Intelli Train from eBay. A bit more research tells me that it is Lego Part number 2961, it is from Duplo set 2932 ‘Passenger Train Starter Set with Motor’ and is listed as ‘Train Passenger Locomotive Base’ there is a green freight version (Duplo set 2933 ‘Deluxe Freight Train Set with Motor’).

When I got it from eBay is was sold as not working, but there was also no reason listed as what it was not working, or what it was not doing (It was sold with the rolling stock, and the flashy lights, but no PWay or parts).

Looking at the locomotive it seems to be in good physical shape,

Getting in is a bit of a challenge:

The cells all go the same way round!

front clip

back clips

cells need to be removed

the red parts behind the yellow are also clips 🙁

use a flat blade screwdriver to open the back, keep the blade in the gap

use another flat blade to open the side up, and step it over the tabs

on both sides

now to attack the front clip with a flatblade

all the win

side clips re pop, again gentle pressure with a flat blade

And we are in!

As you can see I won 🙂

putting the cells back in and pressing the yellow button didnt win me anything

the negative battery springs have a lot of corrosion on them

the drive train parts

the front axle doesn’t have a magnet on it, unlike some Duplo locomotives

PCB removed from loco, solder side

PCB removed from loco, component side

The H7057 chip on the PCB. I assume H is the general family of the part, 7057 is the number itself, -16PI indicates some variant (such as 16 pin plastic DIP package, etc.) However I can’t seem to find any details of this used anywhere other than by Duplo.

The switch on the PCB is borked (seems to be a common problem).

Scraped corrosion of the PCB

During cleaning the corrosion off one of the springs I managed to break one… (I will work on fixing it later)

Taking the train to work (Both the little Duplo one, and the Northern Rail one)

Further cleaning of the carrosion required something a little stronger… the nasty nasty flux!

I didnt have a two legged square push to make switch that would fit nicely 🙁

As you can see from this pic and the previous, the switch is a little taller

To get a gap so that the switch was not allways being pressed I found this M4 spring washer laying around

The gap looks good 🙂

After dunking the broken one in the flux, I soldered a bit of braid onto it,

Solder the brade to the spring tab

and cut to length

Cells back in the bottom of the train

And a quick test flight drive:

Now that is three working Lego Duplo locamotives 😀