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The motherboard on my MTH Premier 20-20303-1 Amtrak P42 #156 died on me recently and I am looking to find another one. Since MTH does not sell board to commercial customers, does anyone know a good train parts retailer that may have boards in stock for this type of engine ?

Thanks!

 Nick 

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I have that same engine and put a board in it.   It is not a motherboard you need.  You need a complete PS3 diesel board.   If you buy new or used, you need to load the chain files into the new board followed by the sound file.  No board is made just for that engine.  A PS3 diesel board can be used for any PS3 diesel.  The files you load into it make the board match what your engine is.  

What happened to your board.  What transformer were you powering it with when it died?

You might call Vinny at the NJ Hi-Railers.

Last edited by Marty Fitzhenry
Marty Fitzhenry posted:

I have that same engine and put a board in it.   It is not a motherboard you need.  You need a complete PS3 diesel board.   If you buy new or used, you need to load the chain files into the new board followed by the sound file.  No board is made just for that engine.  A PS3 diesel board can be used for any PS3 diesel.  The files you load into it make the board match what your engine is.  

What happened to your board.  What transformer were you powering it with when it died?

You might call Vinny at the NJ Hi-Railers.

Thanks for letting me know that all PS3 diesel boards are the same. I was using an MTH Z4000 Transformer when the issue Happened, some smoke also started to come through the vents of the engine. I inspected the board and found a few burn marks on it. 

That is wild.  Like I said I have the same engine that I got from a friend knowing the board was blown.    I threw in a new board and life is good.  If you do the board yourself or have it done, do the following.  Never throw a new board at an engine that had smoke until you find out and repair what took the board out in the first place.

156

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Last edited by Marty Fitzhenry
Marty Fitzhenry posted:

That is wild.  Like I said I have the same engine that I got from a friend knowing the board was blown.    I threw in a new board and life is good.  If you do the board yourself or have it done, do the following.  Never throw a new board at an engine that had smoke until you find out and repair what took the board out in the first place.

156

Where did you get your replacement board from?

I am an MTH tech as well as a certified Lionel tech  and always keep several boards on hand.   I have been to 6 MTH schools.  I have over 300 engines and things do happen that may require a new board from time to time.   I do not sell boards and many folks that advertise on the forum are MTH techs.    Any tech I know will not just sell a board and let it go into harms way.  They will want to do the installation as well as load the chain files and sound files.  You live in an area with many MTH techs.  I would contact Vinny.  Vinny has always been the NJ area tech that I send people to.

Last edited by Marty Fitzhenry

Nick,

Have you ever installed a PS3 Diesel board?  If not, I would recommend getting an MTH Certified Tech to do it.  The boards are toooooo expensive to mess around with.  You can find the nearest tech on the MTH web site.  I am not going to tell you how -  it has been covered many times.  Do a 'search' and find out how.

bruce

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep Marty, sad to say that's probably a very good operating method. 

If you saw some samples of my products that I get back because of "failures", you'd wonder why I sell them to the general public.

Have you heard of the YouTuber Louis Rossmann? He runs a shop doing component-level repairs on Apple hardware, but also has an entire series of videos and livestreams teaching and demonstrating component-level repairs (<--example) on laptop computers. Also a champion of the "right to repair" movement. Some of his videos touch on fixing bad repair jobs done by other shops (sometimes Apple themselves ) as well as one where he fixed a circuit board that Apple's own techs claimed to be unfixable . While drinking Jagermeister.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker dealing with this sort of stuff, his narration while working can get a touch, um..salty...just so you know before deciding to view these in the living room on the giant-screen TV with the kids in attendance

While this isn't model-train electronics, the stuff he demonstrates is probably applicable to them in some way. Like his tagline says, "I hope you learned something".

---PCJ

 

Last edited by RailRide

The problem selling a board to a non tech is if he destroys it, he has no way of having MTH replace it and you know he is coming after you.  I made the huge mistake of selling a non tech a 5 volt board a few years back.  He ruined it and came after me like gang busters for a refund.  I have a large stock of boards and will only deal with another tech if he needs a board.   I have a man in Michigan who does PS3 upgrades.  He does not know the computer and sends me his boards to load.  A win -- win for both of us.

Any MTH or Lionel repair information I have will get freely shared by myself with anyone who needs it.    I have no problem doing so and both Lionel and MTH have no problem.  I have many OGR Forum members contact me and I am nothing but glad to share any information with them.  

An MTH tech is easy enough to find.    Many times you will save time and shipping by doing this.

 

Last edited by Marty Fitzhenry
RailRide posted:
While this isn't model-train electronics, the stuff he demonstrates is probably applicable to them in some way. Like his tagline says, "I hope you learned something".

Fixing laptops is probably harder than fixing model trains in many cases.  I've worked on enough laptops to know that many are a PITA just to disassemble and reassemble, never mind the repair as well!

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

The problem selling a board to a non tech is if he destroys it, he has no way of having MTH replace it and you know he is coming after you.  I made the huge mistake of selling a non tech a 5 volt board a few years back.  He ruined it and came after me like gang busters for a refund.

Yep, I don't sell boards either as a rule. I did sell a 3V board set recently, and I sent the buyer a video of it running on the test set, and I made it crystal clear that it was a no-return sale!  I never heard anything back, so I'm presuming he didn't toast it installing it.

Sadly, Marty is not with us anymore.  He did indeed do repairs and upgrades.  However, I can tell you, if it's anything more than just plugging the new board in, the repair parts & labor will most likely exceed the price of just buying a new one that's complete.  Even to put the new board in is well over half the MSRP of the engine, and you still have to program it and install it.

Sorry to hear about Marty.  I just joined this forum.  I bought this engine from Cabin Fever Auctions and it was the prototype SD-45 and was void of it's electronics.  I'll put it on a shelf or a siding track.  I thought it might be a big chunk of the engine's value to replace the electronics.  Thanks for replying.  Do you do repairs in case I need some in the future?  Thanks again, Jim

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