help needed: PS2 upgrade problems

Did this have a CV Board for the cab bulbs.  If so they are 6V and can remain.  The only bulbs that need to be replaced are the dual bulb front and rear lights which are 1.5V and will blow if you use them.  So you can use the one double bulb.  Or splice the 2 individual ditch lights with the 2 directional bulbs provided so that they both are in parallel and create the double bulb you need.

No problem with double bulbs, MTH warns against triple bulbs.  Though they do it in some of their production units.   G

When upgrading, I just wired them to motors, and would resolder wires if motors didn't run as desired.

I upgraded Weaver diesels with twwin headlights, and they used a single bulb for both lenses.

My recollection is that each light circuit can handle 2 bulbs.

Yeah I know I can do that, I just hate doing something twice. 

I've swapped the interior light harness with two bulbs for the front headlight bulb.  I hate bright interior lights anyway, and will probably run with it off most of the time.  For the rear light I modified the lense so I could put the one bulb between the two lights.  I'm sure it will be on the dim side, but the rear light isn't that important to me, to me it's mostly a "reverse indicator" light.

The lighting circuits can handle at least three bulbs, as George says, some of the stock locomotives come with three on the circuit.

You can also upgrade the lighting to LED's, you could probably handle ten or twelve LED's on the headlight circuit.  I typically use a 220 ohm resistor in series with the white LED's for PS/2 lighting, that gives me about 10-12 ma to the LED.

I converted the lights on a WbB diesel, removed the two bulbs and installed 8 LED's in total. Love the conversion.

I'm not that worried in this particular application. Just want to get it running.  Any comment on which is which on the blue and yellow PS1 motor leads?

No.  I'd use trial & error.

The instructions just say swap them if it doesn't go in the right direction, and that's what I do.  It's pretty hard to tell which way the motor will run, and sometimes the gearing throws you off as far as rotation.  The worst that can happen is it starts out backwards.

Actually, the motors running in opposite directions would be worse, but no harm will be done in either event if you don't leave it powered, or unless your motors are large enough and traction good enough to either crunch the loco or split it in the middle..

Ok, so what did I do wrong?  The rollers are quite grooved (I plan to replace them when I find the correct part number - can't find it on MTH's website and I haven't had time to call) but is it bad connection or something else?

What are we looking at?  I see the lock-on light turn off then on; is the engine in conventional and you just put it into forward?  How many volts on the track?  I see the engine lights flicker synchronized to the chattering.  Is that chattering coming from the directional relay or from from the speaker?  Does sound work?  Is the engine trying to move - if you remove the shell can you see the flywheels (motors) trying to spin?

I'd try it on the bench with a low value circuit breaker from the transformer first.  I like the shell off and the wheels turning free for my first test.  Are you sure the motors aren't fighting each other?

Hard to tell from the video.  Is this after an upgrade? 

If you take the shell off, and let loco run with wheels off track, flywheels should spin in opposite rotations.  For motor feed wires, the colors on both sides of the loco should be the same, like both yellows on right side and both blues or whatever on the left die.

For motor testing, I use a 9V battery and determine which terminal makes the fwd motor spin in forward and mark that as +.  Do the same to the rear motor to determine fwd direction.  The Yel wire starts off + in the fwd direction so that goes to the + motor terminal.

Hard to tell what is going on, but it does not sound like it started up.  I would recheck the wiring, make sure no pinched wires, and that the speaker leads are not grounded to chassis or speaker frame. G

Wowak, try a "conventional reset."  Connect transformer direct to track.  No TIU in circuit.  Apply power slowly When you get up to around 10 volts, press whistle once and bell 5 times, at 1/2 second intervals.  Loco should respond with 2 toots.  This cannot be done with remote or TIU in circuit.

If the conventional reset doesn't take, try it again, the timing is fairly critical on the button presses.

It was never intended that you should be able to operate PS/2 with that equipment list.

Can you take it somewhere to a location that has a modern transformer and/or a DCS system?

Wowak, can you go to some level other than the conventional, disconnect a transformer from the layout, and use it, when layout not otherwise being used--even if you have to use jumper cables.  I would expect that some other club member must have a suitable transformer, and is decent enough to help you out.  If not, find another club.

It's pretty specific steps to lock it in one direction, but anything's possible.  If you put it on the DCS layout and try it, that should give you more information about what is happening.

You can also cobble together a whistle/bell box pretty simply with some diodes and a couple of push button switches.

Wowak, I had a new PS3 loco that would take off as soon as power was applied to the track.  I called MTH and the VP answering the phone at service told me of the conventional reset.  It worked.  Absolutely nothing could be done with the loco until the reset.  There was no discernible event before the condition occurred.

Trouble with putting together a controller is that it might need debugging, whereas if you can find someone sociable enough to let you use a transformer with whistle & bell buttons, you can concentrate on the task at hand.  As GRJ said, timing is important.

If it immediately starts moving chances are one of the motor wires is touching Chassis ground via a nick in the insulation near a metal bracket or the chassis, or you have stray wire strands from the solder joint at the motor touching the can of the motor.

Remove the 5 pin and use a VM to check continuity from a motor lead to the chassis ground.  Should read open.  If it reads short or 0 ohms that lead is grounded.  The ground needs to be found.   Most likely is a white motor wire that is grounded.  G

  Most tech get rid of the rubber band, and don't restrict the movement of the wires.  Maybe a loose tie wrap down low at the center of the chassis.

The rubber bands cause more issues then the solve.  G

When tinkering around the motor, you may have dislodged the tach reader or damged the 3 wires to it.  Gap should be .75-1.2 mm, as I recall.

If the tach is marginal, it'll only pick up a few lines and be very fast.  Check the tach reader, it's by far the most likely suspect here.

I had to make some modifications to the reader mount to move it closer to the flywheel, but that did solve it.  Everything is (finally) working great now.

All's well that ends well.   You do know there are three different sensors, two of them have spacers under the IR sensor chip to move it closer to the flywheel.