PS2 Upgrade Problems

The resets that are listed above by Alan (repair technician) are only for engines equipped with Proto-Sound (PS1), not Proto-Sound 2.0. 

The boards do not have a name loaded into them by the sound file.  The name can be edited with DCS, but will become blank again if you ever do a factory reset on the engine.  To get the name to stick even through factory resets, you will have to have someone load the name with the dealer version of the DCS loader program. 

As for there being no speed control and chuffing, there are a few possibilities, but the most common I have seen is the spacing between the tach sensor and the flywheel.  If the gap is too large, the sensor will not read the stripes and the result is what you are seeing.  Other possibilities include a bad tach sensor or a possible break in the wire to the tach sensor somewhere.

Only authorized MTH service techs have the proper software to write the name to the Protosound 2.0/3.0 boards. Unless you know a service tech who can write the file to the board it will always be blank. As for the non-chuffing and rampant acceleration, this sounds like and issue with the tach reader. Is the tach tape on the flywheel? is the spacing correct on the tach reader, is the tach reader plugged into the board, are the wires all tight?

Bill and Matt hit.  Depending on the flywheel size and type of motor the tach reader gap is not always optimum on upgrades.  You need to get creative in lowering the reader to achieve a gap of the thickness of a dime or slightly less.   G

You can write a custom name to the locomotive from the remote, it'll stay until you do a factory reset on the locomotive.  As previously stated, only MTH techs have the service loader that allows a permanent name to be written.

It is a standard 5V board in a large aluminum bracket.  The larger connector is used to disconnect the shell from the frame.

Just remove the Al bracket and 5V board and replace with PS-2 3V.  DONOT modify any wires.  Replace the battery and speaker to 3V spec.

You need to get creative to mount the board, but it works.  G

Alan, YOu really should start your own thread vice hi-jack another.

Post some pictures.  The motor is 5pin and the tach is on the 7 pin.  Depending on the harness wiring some times the tach doesn't come from the 7 pin, just the orange return.

It is possible someone put a different reverse unit in, so I don't now what you are working with.

If it is original it will have the 12, 7, 8, 4, 5 and 2 pin connected to the board.  You just swap the header connectors from the 5V to the 3V and plug the wires into the new 3V.

If this is totally jury rigged, get the instructions from the diesel upgrade kit and follow the wiring, but you will have some additional tracing to do for the shell harness to chassis.  G

I agree with George, how about starting a new thread on this issue.  In your new thread, please post pictures of what you have, as I'm not understanding the issue.  The 5V boards and the 3V boards have the same compliment of connectors, just different connector shells.

Lionel 16... One of the causes of a engine taking off or no speed control is a motor lead touching the motor's  casing..

 I did take the boiler shell off and tried adjusting the gap between the flywheel and sensor by hand.  I did not receive any improved results.  

Is there a way to test the tach reader and verify that it still works? 

You can look at thru a camera or cell phone camera.  You will see a purple dot if the LED is lite.  That doesn't prove the receiver side works though.  You can check for voltage at the gray and blue of the tach.  About 3.3V.  Be careful if testing a short can damage the boards. 

G

If you are careful, you can actually slowly rotate the flywheel while monitoring the output pin to ground, it will vary between ground and 3-4 volts.

Output is orange to blue.  G

I did  not receive any voltage after measuring across the gray and blue wires.  I decided to order a new tach reader through my local MTH repair technician.  I hope to install the new tach reader sometime next week.

If you didn't get any voltage there, I'm not sure that's the sensor.  Sounds like there's no voltage coming from the PS/2 board.

Good news!  I replaced the speed sensor.   After doing so, the speed control and chuffing is restored.

The voltage measurement must have been off, but all's well that ends well.

John and G.... I have a question and wish to refer to your MTH tech knowledge.  Yesterday I retrieved the 3 pc. Coal Turbine from the attic after close to ten years storage.  First thing I did was to replace the battery with new (8.7 v on meter), lubricate as needed, opened smoke unit, checked wick and directly applied smoke fluid to wick.  Placed it on the track and powered up.  Sound and smoke works great, including smoke in turbine unit.  However, when started in motion, approx. five feet down the track it came to full stop, bad smoke from the PA head unit.  Opened back up, two diodes for the front coupler are fried, all else looks good.  So, replaced bottom board with good board from dealer installed ps1 in Weaver U.P. FEF.  Almost works, only front can motor functions.  Is there this much difference in bottom boards for "steam" and "diesel" ?  Also, is the original turbine board repairable, or would be best to upgrade to ps2, and costs?

Thanks......  Jesse

I believe there's a jumper on the master board that is required if you have a slave.  Match the jumpers on the board you removed with the one you're putting in.  I forget where the jumper is, but that's likely your issue.

John,   Visually, the boards are identical.  Only diff I see is the manufacturer of the "square/boxlike" (relays?) mounted above where the leads to the motors plug in.  True, the connectors for the "steam" can motor has only one wire lead, the connectors for the turbine can motors has two leads.  I am speaking of the white and yellow connectors on the bottom of the main board, outboard locations, with the black and red connectors in the center area.  As for jumpers, perhaps it is internal on boards for "diesel/turbine" and not for engines with single cans, aka "steam".  Would it be a plausible idea to jump the two white wire leads, and two yellow leads, at the connectors for the dual can motors?   Also, this engine, Coal Turbine, has the hard four pin connectors between the 3 units.  What would be the approx. cost and difficulty to change over to ps2?  Could put in TMCC/RS with no difficulty as I have before with ps1, but wish to retain the sounds as they are.

Thanks.....Jesse 

The motors are simply run in parallel, so that makes no difference. 

Changing over to PS/2 requires both a diesel PS/2 kit and the slave kit, so the price will be significant.  The price of the parts is in the $300 ballpark alone.

Thanks, John....

You need to look at all the motors and possibly clean them with an electric motor spray like CRC has.  Sitting that long can cause issues.

There are not diodes for the coupler.  If these are the big 6amp diodes they are the conversion diodes that create DC primarily for the motor.

Why 2 burned up needs to be investigated. 

I would match up the replacement board to the original.  Transfer wires if necessary.  They are identical.

Since the lead engine died, it is the main PS-1 bottom board at issue not the slave DCRU. So the jumpers were not the issue, especially since the engine was running correctly for as while.  You may have had one motor dragging and this could have overloaded the board.

I have a Slave kit for the turbine.  You can contact me for a price quote.  I have done the turbine before.  Nice when completed, but it more costly than a single upgrade.  G

G.....  Thanks for the input.  Yes, the trailing "slave" motor in the PA unit was dragging in the truck.  I removed the can motor from the truck and placed across the frame, on track and applied power.  The engine moved forward with the trailing can motor running fine.  Did have some resistance from the free wheeling truck and gearing, lubricated well with Prolong synthetic lub, turned wheels/gears to work into areas.  Replaced can and set on track with frame blocked up, but center pickups contacting.  Let run for several minutes, observed both motors and wheel assemblies/trucks.  Ran alone on track and performance did improve as truck became more free and amp rating did lower with time running.  Still may consider upgrade to ps2 in future, wish to improve my motive power reliance and do like ps2, along with TMCC/RS.  Again, thanks...Jesse

What is interesting is that that should have cause DCRU diodes to fail, not main board.  Sometimes those diode solder joints can be bad, that may have been the issue.  The bottom board that is now bad can be repaired too.

I have found motor coupling to be an interesting phenomena.  Weird stuff like runs fine in fwd but one hangs up in reverse.  Sometimes it is the motor and sometimes a truck gear lash issue, but it can be very frustrating figuring it out.

I also had one where a PS-2 slave board could not drive 2 motors correctly in reverse but worked fine in fwd.  A new slave solved the issue, but the old one works a single motor fine.  I am working with MTH to figure that one out.   G