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All,

I need help figuring out an issue with an MTH BL2 that I just picked up. It’s a PS1 unit model # MT-2132LP. I put it on the track and powered it up. I hear startup sounds like normal but it will not move out of neutral. I tried to perform the step 18 reset but no change. Also, I’m not getting the bell or horn either. All other sounds are working. I’m using a Lionel CW80. I did find an issue with the battery and socket. One of the connections is heavily corroded. I removed the battery plug and replaced it but I have not attempted to plug another battery (rechargeable) into it until I reached out to you guys. My theory is the loco will not move out of neutral because the board loses AC power when the direction button is pushed and there’s no battery voltage to sustain the needed voltage in the driver board to keep it from going into reset. Am I correct? What else should I be looking at? What’s the best replacement for the 9V battery? Many thanks!

DanBC0EED09-FAE7-4CA7-8FF6-52B62229A5B83D18183F-9347-4BA9-9C7F-9EEF02D9AE8472F95819-B554-4200-9176-CB29EE2D051BC1FECB20-8844-4E7E-88EF-98C99E6B31AF

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Ron, I don’t have an MTH transformer. Only have a Lionel CW80 and a ZW besides a few other older Lionel’s that are packed away. All of my loco’s are either Lionel or MTH that I’ve converted to TMCC. I’ve stayed away from DCS control trying to keep it simple. So here I am. I’ve always liked the BL2 and came across this one so I figured why not? In conventional mode, I should at least be able to control motion, right?

Matt, I just received the loco yesterday. Honestly, I didn’t think to look at the battery for corrosion prior to running it because I’ve never had a battery issue before. I really don’t use MTH electronics in my collection other than a few conventional QSI units. I’ll look into sourcing a battery replacement. Which do you recommend? An EBL Li-Ion or NiMH. I’m assuming the charging circuit was built for an NiMH battery, correct?

Thanks for your help!

Dan

Last edited by DanVW
@RailRide posted:

On next power-up, try your ZW. Protosound (1) units are known to reject the "shark-fin" AC waveform that CW-80's produce (electronic transformers chop out parts of the AC sine-wave to vary their output voltage). ZW's and other postwar transformers output "pure" sine wave AC, which was the predominant form of layout power when Protosound was developed.

---PCJ



I’ll give the ZW a try after I replace the battery. I’ve read about this before in other threads but wasn’t completely sure due to my lack of experience with MTH electronics. I’ve also read the “sine wave output thread” put together by other members which was very interesting. Funny thing is, my MTH SW-9 works fine with the CW80.

Thank you,

Dan

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