Maintenance & Repair Info

Greg,

Just send it TrainsZ  for repair.

 Its worth it. When it's all said and done.

Good luck, John

From what I have seen  train repair is a bit more organic than what you are looking for.

think " tinkering".

there may be some classes you could go to if you had the time and money, but those run by the mfrs. are intended for people who are repairing for a living. The suit you are wearing in your avatar tells me maybe you already have a good day job.

the trains are fun to fix, or try to fix, that is how you will learn.

Fred

the backshop videos sold here are pretty darn good. 

TIM

If you go to the MTH website, you can find Barry Broskowitz's DCS Companion, 3rd edition, which is the most complete reference work on MTH's DCS control system.  MTH also runs tech classes for persons wishing to become certified MTH techs.  They ahve also conducted some advanced classes for persons who wanted to learn what goes on inside the boards.  It may be that you must have a train dealer sponsor you, but I'm sure you can get more info by contacting MTH, or Barry Broskowitz or GGG who regularly appear on the DCS forum portion of the OGR forum.  Good luck.

Thanks for all of the info guys.

What are the advanced class that MTH teaches?  They don't go into detailed board design and repair.  That is self taught. G

Actually, GGG, someone told me that after the tech class had ended, you stayed up in Columbia to learn more about what goes on inside the boards, than is taught in the tech classes.  So in answer to Mr. Marshelagelo's question, what sources are there for info on delving deeper into the boards?

Some of the posts right here on the forum are very good sources of information on repairing trains. There are lots of very knowledgeable folks that are willing to help, some are Lionel and MTH trained repair techs. Most of what I know about trains (which isn't a lot) was learned here on the OGR forum. I think reading about problems others have had and the posts from folks trying to help them solve the problems also gives one a little incentive to try things they may not have tried otherwise.

I also agree with the post above about folks that like tinkering, it's a very good trait to have when fiddling with model trains. I don't have as much as I would like to have in that department.

Mr. Marshelagelo, check this thread of a few years back:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...-i-do-to-be-prepared

RJR, Ever hear the story of the sergeant telling a private to pass a command down the formation, then he walks to the end to hear the response?

They would teach some advanced soldering techniques, and would have you do some soldering of surface mounted components.  That would equate to a cert so they would give you a component kit for use.  Most of which was old stuff for PS-1 and through hole electronics.

There are minimal items MTH has identified as common failures and fixable at the component level.  Detailed board stuff is not provided, and much of the technical info on the PS-2 PS board is not really accurate.

How to fix Battery related issues on the PS board, MUX repair, Slave board other than Motor FET not covered, in fact they don't even carry the parts  they listed in the service manual.  Just the audio amps, speed amp, and the slave motor FET and some other basic resistors and light FETs. 

So the simple soldering check out is now called an advance board class after translation.  G