BLI AC-6000's at BLW, listed as "New Production Run"

[mu26aeh]

BLW has the BLI AC-6000 listed for the BHP Iron and Southern Pacific roads as " New Production Run ".  Did they correct their issues with the decoder boards that this is marked a new run ?  I think I'd still be leery of them given that some of the replacement boards they sent out went up in smoke too.

[drbnc]

Going to find out.  Ordered the two SP units yesterday (fingers crossed). 

[ek2000]

Going to find out.  Ordered the two SP units yesterday (fingers crossed).

Let us know how it goes, i would be interested in knowing if it stalls around turnouts. Decoder issues aside, I find BLI locos to be much more finicky than other brands, which is what is keeping me off from the AC6000 now.

[ek2000]

@drbnc , did you get a chance to try your AC6000s? I'm wondering if the decoder issues are addressed with the new release (BHP Iron ore etc.).

If anyone else had better (or still poor) luck with their BLIs  (decoder issues, stalls, burn outs etc), please share your experience.

There are still plenty of models available at MB Klein, the temptation is there to try them, but...

[drbnc]

@ek2000 They have not arrived yet.  Should be late this week.

[LarryN]

Folks,

Well I just got my (undecorated) AC6000 from BLW . I ordered it along with a UP unit. The box says that the date of manufacture was August, 2017. Does that make it a second production run or not? Who knows? In any event, it makes air brake sounds, alarm bells , throttles up...but does not move a bit. The last one (see old, old thread) just made smoke (and did so again, even with a new decoder board). I am not sure if this constitutes progress or not. I guess I was stupid not to cancel my order after getting burned the first time.
I opened it up, can see nothing askew. If I undo one connector, and apply power to the motor directly, it spins, so the motor is good.
But something else appeared-a small black piece of something that turns out to be a loose SMD of some type. Careful examination of the board top and bottom does not show any unpopulated location that it could have come from. Even with a optivisor, the numbers cannot be made out. My Fluke meter concludes it is not a diode or resistor, but a cap (.089uF)
I really wanted a AC6000C. The Undecorated one was to be painted up in Erie Lackawanna (Which avoided conrail, became a regional powerhouse in the Post Staggers rail scene on my railroad). It would be a good pair to the SD90 I already have in EL. I will just see about using the shell on a rock solid KATO chassis that I will be forced to lengthen.
I do not think I will ever buy anything from BLI again.

Larry N

[peteski]

throttles up...but does not move a bit.
...
But something else appeared-a small black piece of something that turns out to be a loose SMD of some type. Careful examination of the board top and bottom does not show any unpopulated location that it could have come from. Even with a optivisor, the numbers cannot be made out. My Fluke meter concludes it is not a diode or resistor, but a cap (.089uF)

That is a tough break!
The measured capacitance of that component seems odd.  Also small value (ceramic) caps are usually brownish in color. Tantalum caps are usually black or yellow, but they always have a polarity mark, or one of the metal ends is shaped differently from the other one.   But I guess that since you don't see any place where this part would belong on the PC board, none of this is really relevant.

Couple more thoughts:
Can you control any of the sound or light functions when you address it on your DCC throttle, or the only sounds you hear are the automatic sounds?. Have you tried running it in DC?

[wazzou]

BLI certainly seems to be falling on to the list of companies that I'd be leery of supporting.

[Chris333]

Just what we all need. A new Bachmann.

[LarryN]

Folks (and Peteski)

That is a tough break!
The measured capacitance of that component seems odd.  Also small value (ceramic) caps are usually brownish in color. Tantalum caps are usually black or yellow, but they always have a polarity mark, or one of the metal ends is shaped differently from the other one.   But I guess that since you don't see any place where this part would belong on the PC board, none of this is really relevant.

Couple more thoughts:
Can you control any of the sound or light functions when you address it on your DCC throttle, or the only sounds you hear are the automatic sounds?. Have you tried running it in DC?

I re-checked the "fallen" components, cleaning off the pads carefully and measured things again.  (The cap value I quoted  seemed unsteady).The component actually checks out as a diode, with a voltage drop of a bit over 0.2V making it a Schottkey diode (might also explain why one pad was longer than the other). Still no idea from whence it came. I run straight DC, so I can offer no insight as to its behavior, if any under DCC. My BLI centipede worked fine under DC.

Larry N

[ek2000]

There's only so much a company's customer service can do to salvage reputation when the manufacturing & QC processes fails to deliver. This locomotive was more than a year late and yet these issues persist.

BLI diesels have separately applied details, the sound is great when it works, the decoders have manual notching and are load sensing yet reliability is rock bottom. This will become the sad irony of BLI unless they straighten their manufacturing and QC. Reducing the warranty from 2 to 1 year (online registrations) with all these issues is not comforting either.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

My AC6000 is also from August and was one of the early CSX models. No problems yet other than poor CV settings for start and stop in DC mode.

[rrjim1]

I have several hours on my two CSX units running them only in DCC and they run and sound great. I ordered one from MBK and the other from BLW.

Also from what I was told only the BHP and SP versions are from the new production run all the rest are from the first run.

[Englewood]

My LHS has an SP model for sale. I am very tempted. Thankfully they test run everything in front of you before it goes out the door.

[drbnc]

@ek2000     Okay - SP 600 and 601 just arrived, "hot outta da grease" as they say!  Both run perfectly, no drop-outs, no magic smoke from the decoders, no errant glue spots, etc.!  Running both about an hour so far, they are awesome!  I'll pull one of the shells this weekend to check the chips.