PS-3 Upgrade Kit

They should be available sometime in mid-to-late 2015.

Thanks for the reply.  It seems like the release date just keeps moving out. 

should be running ps4 by the time they are out.

As and MTH service tech I just got notice of the new PS-3 replacement boards to substitute for the PS-2 boards. I imagine the PS-3 upgrade kits will be similar to the PS-2 kits with a different board set

Without saying more than I should, I can tell you they will be very easy to deal with.

Marty, I take it that once these are out the PS2 kits will be phased out?

Bob,

It looks that way.  The PS3 boards have PS2 connectors and are about the same size.

Dave

Will these PS3 kits also work in a PS1 locomotive?

The PS/3 upgrade kit is supposed to replace the PS/2 upgrade kit.  That being the case, I'm assuming it's going to be for any upgrade, PS/1 and/or non-MTH stuff that you'd typically upgrade with the PS/2 kit.

John,   You will have to look for MTH to release the information.  I am just a beta tester and that information at this time is property of MTH.

I remember rumors saying PS3 boards were going to be smaller based on the HO versions but after seeing they are virtully the same size I don't see any reason to wait for them so picked a few PS2 kits at York. I have couple of PS3 engines and don't find them significantly better than my PS2 engines anyway so why wait?

Pete

The main reasons I can think of are no battery for the PS3 and smaller footprint means it'll fit in smaller engines.

From all reports, the footprint isn't that much smaller than the PS/2 set, given that it has a piggyback board on the PS/3 board.  The battery issue is easily solved with a BCR.

Bob,

The footprint is no smaller.  The PS3 boards, both production model and upgrade, actually fit into the same plastic mount.  Other than the caps and LED lighting, I can see no reason to wait for the PS3 kits if you need to upgrade an engine.  I think it is safe to assume that MTH is just bringing everything up to the PS3 platform.

Dave

The piggy-back board is actually to drive incandescent bulbs.  I'd like an upgrade kit that dispensed with that board and drove LED's directly, that could be truly smaller.

I'd have to go back and watch it again, but I think this is pretty much what Mike Wolf said in the spring York TCA presentation. I think he also said the PS3 kits would be out this past summer.

Just watched most of the fall York presentation and I don't remember anything about the PS3 kits, but I missed a part of it, will have to re-watch that one too.

I was at the OGR Grandstand presentation, I didn't hear anything about the PS/3 kits.

Thanks for all the responses!  I'm primarily looking at upgrading PS-1 engines to PS-3.  Based upon the price of the upgrade kit, I have to look at the point where it's worth upgrading the old engine or buying a new one.  Also, there are a couple of old PS-1's that I really like and simply want to upgrade.

I was able to post before on the size.  The length of the board in the mount is the same as PS2.  The height is the same.  The width of the new PS3 is 1/16 wider.  As soon as Mike gives me the OK, I have a huge photo file on the new boards.

Paul, I upgraded all of my old can motored engines to PS2.  A dollar analysis would have said it was not justified, but these were locos that mechanically ran well & defect free (Samhongsa {Korean, not Chinese} quality from the 1990s--Weaver & MTH).  I have not regretted it.

Word I hear is that the PS3 board will cost more.  As Marty notes, the footprint is almost the same, so there is nothing to be gained size-wise.  Since I have a few locos with the old 5-volt boards that are nearing the end of their lives, I picked up a few PS2 upgrade kits at York to replace their boards.  While they do require a battery, I have found that there are very small 2.4-volt batteries available.

Basically what you're saying is there are no new possibilities with the new kits, they're just moving to the PS/3 platform.  As mentioned, since the PS/3 boards individually cost more than the PS/2 boards, one can assume that the upgrade kit will also go up in price I suspect.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but most of the small 2.4v batteries I've seen are NiMh, whereas the standard MTH PS-2 upgrade batteries are 2.4v NiCad. Is it safe to substitute NiMh batteries?

I don't mean to hijack this thread but most of the small 2.4v batteries I've seen are NiMh, whereas the standard MTH PS-2 upgrade batteries are 2.4v NiCad. Is it safe to substitute NiMh batteries?

Thanks Barry

I imagine parts to build the PS-2 3V are going to go obsolete at some point.  The Power Supply board already had the battery circuit FET go obsolete.  Even the tach reader chip went obsolete.  They did come up with an SMD tach chip for PS-2.  To get around the power supply board, they had to go with a different chip and it had a different footprint hence the latest Power Supply boards are REV E.

Now that PS-3 boards are in full swing, producing PS-2 is probably not cost effective.  Just like the PS-2 5V was replaced with the PS-2 3V with 5V connectors, MTH has a PS-3 backfit with the adapter board having either 5V or 3V connectors depending on what engine needs repairs.  How the adapter board and the extra width works out with mounting as a direct replacement for PS-2 boards will be seen.

Should not be an issue for 3V boards, since they all are in the tender on stream, and diesels are pretty easy.

There could be some issues with 5V boards if they are in the engine, but you could always do it as an upgrade and put the board in the tender.

You can always use a BCR or super caps on the PS-2 boards so that is not a reason to wait.

You wait, because you need the 2 rail DCS capability, or you want DCC, or you think the extra memory and sound is worth the wait.  Having worked on them, they are less for giving.  So a blown board is going to be a new board, as very little has been effective to repair at this point.  PS-2 is very much repairable at the component level and is a 2 piece so normally blowing a processor is $120 MSRP.  The new PS-2 diesel board is $220 MSRP.   So you need to ask whether you want the Ferrari to go get the groceries on an inexpensive engine.   G

George, my biggest issue with PS/3 is as you mentioned, if the board is bad, it's bad!  I have a couple of bad ones here, and I have little to no hope of fixing them.  The 3V PS/2 boards are a lot more repairable.

Based upon the price of the upgrade kit, I have to look at the point where it's worth upgrading the old engine or buying a new one.  Also, there are a couple of old PS-1's that I really like and simply want to upgrade.

I had a couple of Railking engines (RS3 and 2-8-0) with Locosound.  I was also thinking of simply buying new engines with PS2, but realized I'd still have these 2 w/Locosound and would upgrade them anyway just to get rid of the Locosounds.

I ended up upgrade the 2-8-0 with PS2 and the RS3 with ERR TMCC.

There could be some issues with 5V boards if they are in the engine, but you could always do it as an upgrade and put the board in the tender.

GGG, if you were to do that, what would you do for controlling firebox and marker lights, since there are no spare wires in the tether?

Robert,

if you were to do that, what would you do for controlling firebox and marker lights, since there are no spare wires in the tether?

You'd use an engine MUX board.

I hadn't heard that MTH sells them on the open market.

Good. Cause I just lost PS2 boards (one 5v steam and one 3v diesel) in two of my favorite engines. Would like to fix them, but go back and forth about upgrading to P3 instead.

The fire box could be powered with the headlight lead.  MTH has some engines like that.  Additionally, MTH has started to use a small board with a capacitor and current limiting resistor and diodes to power the markers via the smoke fan 5V source and the light return.  They flicker somewhat, but work.  You don't have independent control, but they are controlled via DCS headlight controls.  So for a Steam engine it works.  G 

Since the PS2 light outputs will support several bulbs, you can just use a 220 ohm resistor in series with the two marker LED's and parallel them with the headlight.  That works fine.

For my firebox upgrades, I use one or two flickering LED's, and you can connect those directly to track power with a diode, capacitor, and resistor to power them direct.

Thought occurred to me to use a voltage regulator like I built for car lighting, except with lesser output voltage [yes, GRJ, I know you prefer current regulation], and then have it feed marker, interior and boiler lights.  Could feed it directly from track power, so they are always on when track is powered.  I have a Weaver PS2 SD40-2, on which I left the beacon connected to track power.  Has proven to be real handy to indicate a track is powered even though loco is shut down.

Why not keep it simple and just use the PV generated on the engine side and a resistor to control the voltage/current?  G

Well, for flickering LED's, they need filtering or they don't work properly.  For other lighting, the PV is fine.  I tend not to want to overload it with a lot of external connections, but a couple of LED's probably wouldn't be an issue.

PV generated on the engine side

GGG, don't understand.

If you look at the upgrade kit locomotive connector, you'll see two diodes.  These connect to each side of the motor feed, they are used to "resynthesize" the PV 5V line in the engine without having to use another tether pin.  So, they get 11 pins worth of stuff using only 10 pins.