PS2 not charging Battery ... Update

It may have a broken wire in the tether cable. Next time you have it started, try moving the tether cable side to side while advancing the thumb wheel and see if it will move.

Is there voltage on the battery leads without the battery when powered up ?

 The engine should run under old id 34  in command. ID 34 was  created when the battery circuits were working.... Hopefully as Dave suggested you may just  have a broken wire  on the battery leads including the connector.

The engine should run in command with out a battery. (just not very well and no setting can be changed) Needs a good battery for conventional.

The engine will not move in either command or conventional.  So it is looking like it blew the tender mux board again.  Could the batter issue be affecting the tender mux board?

I have never seen a tender mux board go, rarely an engine mux.  Put new battery in.  If it works, either battery too old or charging circuit bad.

GGG posted:

I have never seen a tender mux board go, rarely an engine mux.  Put new battery in.  If it works, either battery too old or charging circuit bad.

"... battery too old or charging circuit bad."  That was my thought, however, I was wondering if this issue could be the root of all the problems?  I am charging the two batteries we have out of the tender with a wall wort MTH charger and will check the engine out with a fully charged battery.  I am, of course , assuming that a defective charging unit will not come into play if the battery is fully charged.  It just won't be charging the battery, correct?

If this is a Proto 2 with the 8.4 volt battery, when you install a new battery, gently squeeze the wings of the negative post of the battery and the wings of the positive post of the plug, with needle nose pliers to slightly close the female connector.  You want the plug to "snap" onto the battery so that it has a good connection for charging.

Charly,

   Recommend you install a BCR and forget about the batteries all together.  My originals are now over 10 years old and still work perfectly.

PCRR/Dave

putting a fully charged battery will be of no help if there's a broken wire some place between the battery and main board.... However it's worth a shot.    Did you try and measure the voltage coming from the 2 pin battery connection without the battery? .

Pine Creek Railroad posted:

Charly,

   Recommend you install a BCR and forget about the batteries all together.  My originals are now over 10 years old and still work perfectly.

PCRR/Dave

Won't matter if charging circuit not working.

Gregg posted:

putting a fully charged battery will be of no help if there's a broken wire some place between the battery and main board.... However it's worth a shot.    Did you try and measure the voltage coming from the 2 pin battery connection without the battery? .

 

Yes.

Dave Zucal posted:

If this is a Proto 2 with the 8.4 volt battery, when you install a new battery, gently squeeze the wings of the negative post of the battery and the wings of the positive post of the plug, with needle nose pliers to slightly close the female connector.  You want the plug to "snap" onto the battery so that it has a good connection for charging.

3 volt, green scuba tank.

It would appear that even with a fully charged battery that this engine will not move.  As stated before, all functions work, just no motion.  If I were to upgrade this to a PS3 system with the stacker board set, would it still require the tender mux board?  I will attach some photos this evening of the tender to show what's in there.

Thanks.

Maybe it's the motor or the wiring going to it and not the board at all. Also check for the rods binding or thrown tire tangled in the rods. If something is binding up, a motor driver on the board may have cooked and will do the same to a new board after it is installed.

If you have all the stuff handy (cables etc) why not try reloading  the sound file.

Will the motor turn  with the plugged pulled and hooked up directly  to a battery? (9 volt)

Flywheel turn by hand with no binding?

Even if the MUX board is blown shouldn't the engine still   take off at full speed in command? ?? I don't know.

Maybe try a feature reset a few times in a row? 

Hey all good suggestions, will be giving them all a test this weekend

Motion or Battery charging is the PS-2 board not the mux.  Mux only handles lights in the engine, though it also is used as the jumper to generate PV and relays power for tach in some applications.

Is motor good?  Do you have a test set to test the board on the bench?  Did you do a reset?  Is the motor leads attached?  Are the pins on the engine side tether PCB Cracked?

GGG posted:

Motion or Battery charging is the PS-2 board not the mux.  Mux only handles lights in the engine, though it also is used as the jumper to generate PV and relays power for tach in some applications.

Is motor good?  Do you have a test set to test the board on the bench?  Did you do a reset?  Is the motor leads attached?  Are the pins on the engine side tether PCB Cracked?

Did a thorough bench test with the test fixture, got the board to take a reset with a known good battery.  All functions are working.  The only question remaining regarding the board would be the charging circuit. 

At one time I did a continuity test on all the wires in the engine from their start in the engine to the corresponding pin on the receiver board and everything tested good.  The motor is fine.

I do have a new receiver board but it looks like a PITA to solder in so I have been avoiding that, looks like maybe I may have to bite the bullet.

At present I have completely removed the board from the tender and plan to do continuity tests on all the wire in the harness.  I also did swap the tender mux for giggles, and it made no difference.  I changed it once before and got motion, but that may have been simple luck since it only ran a couple days.

Appreciate all the input, this engine has been a stinker from day one.  A customer bought it originally and I believe that it shorted several times on his track as we have worked on it several times.  He finally got fed up with it, ordered a replacement, and gave this one to me.  It has become a challenge

Thanks guys

Sounds like a wire harness issue.  Tethers go bad.  I was not saying replace engine PCB, look at where the pins are on the board.  Not the wire pad.  Touch up solder the pins.  You have to move wires out of the way not to melt insulation, but could be a cracked motor pin on the outer edge. G

We toyed with this last night and finally got motor response but it's not consistent.  Engine will start out ok, but eventually run sporadic, take off, slow down, etc..  Finally it stopped and went dark and I could not get it to come back with DCS.  Took it to the bench and fussed around got it going in conventional and when I tried the smoke pot in the tender while the engine was running the engine would go full speed when the smoke unit was shut off.  We're going to replace the receiver board and see where that leads us.

Thank you for all your input, it is greatly appreciated

Put a new receiver board in the engine and now it runs without issue.  Am uncertain if the charging circuit is working so I've left the battery out.  While the tender shell was off I use a known strong battery and set the engine parameters the I want them, then disconnected and replaced the shell.

I am curious... if I install a BCR and attempt a write/save then shut track power down and restart that should indicate if the charging circuit was working or if the original battery (which will not take a charge now) was the culprit.  Any insight?

That is correct, Charly. Use a meter and make sure the BCR is totally discharged before installing it. If the engine doesn't keep its address after shut down, you'll know the BCR never received a charge and your charging circuit is bad. But, be aware if this does happen, it could also be a bad BCR that won't hold the charge long enough after shut down. I've had two with that problem over the years. J and W replaced them with no problem. I must say though, I'm still a big fan of the batteries and only use the BCR's now in the Proto 1 engines. I also dislike the fact that the PS-3 boards, without a battery, have the super caps soldered to the board and not plugged on. It would make it a lot easier to replace them if they should go bad if they used a  plug.