Have converted a Weaver Northern from TMCC to PS2. I cannot get the smoke unit to work. Is this because the smoke unit is a non MTH smoke unit? I am assuming the smoke unit that came with the norther is a Lionel smoke unit. The fan in the smoke unit runs, but it will not produce smoke.
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The resistors have different values. Lionel is about 27 ohms and ps2 is 2 16 ohm in parallel. Swap the Lionel resistor for a pair of mths and see if it works.
Thanks. I will try that.
The MTH PS/2 is thinking it has 8 ohms of resistance and is supplying voltage to drive that. Driving a 27 ohm resistor with around 6 volts doesn't dissipate enough power to generate any heat.
I paralleled the two 16 ohm resistors in the Lionel smoke unit for an update, worked great. Leave about 1/4" of leads between the PCB and the resistors.
Bob;
What did you do with the old TMCC guts?
Do you want to sell them?
Rod
Darn Rod, you beat me to it. 
John, I have been doing just that for several years and get great smoke from Lionel locomotives. I recently got a Lionel Y-3 and plan on doing that one when I get caught up.
Marty, I figured some of you guys that do this all day probably already beat me to it. 
I also drill out the hole for the fan intake, between those and new wick, they smoke like an MTH unit.
The big problem with TMCC conversions is you can't pull enough current through the smoke unit from the R2LC to actually generate the heat for large quantities of smoke or you'll fry the triac. However, for the PS/2, I figured that emulating the MTH smoke unit was a good bet.
PS2 will run even more heaters as the One-Gauge lineup has 3 heaters per smoke unit..I add 1 more for a total of 4 which takes the resistance down to around 4 - 6 ohms. I have one Big Boy smoke unit that has 16 heaters in it but that one is getting the power directly from the rails. The PS2 smoke on/ off is powering a solid state relay.
Since they change the current through the smoke unit for the smoke volume adjustment, I can't see it being a simple solid state relay, I'm guessing it's a triac or FET.
Bob;
What did you do with the old TMCC guts?
Do you want to sell them?
Rod
Darn Rod, you beat me to it.
Rod and John,
The guts have been committed to another locomotive I have. Wanted to let you know as you asked what I was going to do with them.
Also, John, thanks for your input. It was most valuable.
Bob
Hope it all works out.
Hope it all works out.
Bob;
Me too.
No harm in asking.
Rod
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