Ripley's TnA (Talk n Action) Repair Thread

I saw that in the other thread.  Great job.

Possible Ripley Jr?

Shall I make a Video of Gordon?
Also if I do you'll definitely notice he runs much faster and you'll also notice he isn't slipping anymore compared to the holiday demo of him I just recently made with his old Wheel set.

Putting this update here too, it is also in a different thread, but since it is regarding TnA repair I think it needs to be here as well.

Regarding the TnA engines and slowness.  I am getting closer I think.  

So I had a spare James that had sound issues.  I have tried various speakers but still the sound is no working or not vary well.  So I decided to expieriment on him a bit.  

I traced the path from where the wires come in from the motor to the circuit board.  I see where it comes through two spots on the board through various components.  The small 3 prong "transistor" on the left in the pic below was what I thought it was at first.  So I tried to short out (laid a piece of metal across all three prongs) and low and behold it was instantly faster.  I shut it off and tried it again but even with the switch in the off position it was coming on and running full power.  So I knew that would not work.  I did also not that if shorting the first two prongs it would be slow, but if I chose the opposite side it was fast.  

So on to the circled capacitor below. I tried the same thing on this, and it was faster when shorting it.  So I shut it off and tried again, which it did nothing...Awesome!!! Since it was off that was expected.  So I soldered the two prongs together and turned it on.. Success!!!

But....

I need to A) test with on that has a speaker to make sure there is nothing crazy going on there.  B) make sure that it still functions over track where the action is to speed up.  And C) try and make sure there are not any long ( or mid-long) term effects.  

What I would like to also try is to find the capacitor and replace it with a new one, or maybe a larger/smaller size depending on what it may need (Hoping Tramp may chime in here).  

Hi I am new to these forums, I found them after running across your youtube videos, I am attempting repair and rebuild of a talking james uk but when changing the capacitor as ringed in your image I knocked off the component on the back which sits directly between the legs of the cal and the main chip under the black blob, it is a small black component with white lettering on it, I am asking if you have a better picture of one of these boards so I can identify what it is please? I have the hot air rework station to reflow it back on but unfortunately without it the board appears dead. Many thanks in advance.

Adam

[ripley802]

I am not entirely sure what that is. Tramp or PowerfulGordonMike (he also has a YouTube and repairs these) may know more on what that component is. Sorry.