PS1 ABA Woes ..al-a-York

Yes, In some early models.  It should not be the source of your issue, but you should trace the wires.  One is the voltage for the rear coupler, the other 3 activate the slave relays.

Is the slave getting power, is the rectifier making DC voltage?  Was the 3 prong jumper in the correct position?  G

I am sorry GGG.

I should have ended by saying that a new NiCad and redoing the wires correctly fixed the problem. He left with all running well.

My questions were more a  curiousity, especially the BCR one.

First for me was realizing that the master unit was looking for the slave to go back into normal operation after reset.

Thanks

One would think someone was in there if the wires were crossed like that.  The fact that it runs after you fix them clearly indicates it wasn't the intended wiring.

But did the BCR work after you corrected the wiring?

I do think the early boards (94) where not recommended with BCR.  So that may be it, plus you can always have an odd reaction with electronics depending on the tolerances.

I have seen PS-1 engines change direction with dead batteries so go figure.

The slave and doing a reset should not be a factor.  The harness picks off control voltage and relay signals that activate the transistors that control the relay coil voltage/current.

The slave board electronics for directional control are not even connected when the jumper is removed.  The relays are driven by the master board circuit that drives the relays.

I have seen wire harness colors not match up in early F-3 units.  So when I do upgrades I always have to check continuity through the old harness.  This is for AA or ABA with only Lead A powered. 

Newer versions tended to be straight pass thru wiring.  G

Just a wild theory;

Is it possible that the slave board is pulling enough current that the BCR cannot hold long enough for the reset to take in memory?

Not sure why the slave not being plugged in would hurt the reset tho, I didn't think the slave had any memory.

I didn't think the slave board shouldn't affect the battery at all, maybe I'm wrong.

Well,  what model is this Hugh.  A quick search of the MTH web showed an AA and separate B, but the AA was a dummy trail. Soooo...based on all this maybe some one added the slave unit to the dummy with motors etc...  May explain the wiring error.  Also if a DCRU wasn't modified correctly to be a slave (there is a trace to cut) it can drain a battery over time.  Not sure if it would overload it on a shutdown.  If you had normal shutdown sounds I would expect that the reset could be handled.  You can also lock the reset in with an advance to a different reset state.  G

I recently had an issue with my Rock Island E8 set and what I ended up discovering was that the instructions for resetting the engine in the owners manual for the engine was different than what the z4000 instructions had,and the instructions in the z4000 told you not to follow the owners manual for the engine. There was a difference in what buttons to use either the whistle or bell button. Don't know if this would help but I figured I would toss it out there.

Not at all G, This one is a premier 20-2176-1 all packed in one big purple box.

http://www.mthtrains.com/content/20-2176-1

You may have missed my earlier posts.

New NiCad, straightened out the B unit wires, everything including all the reset work fine. Saw the guy today in passing, loves it!

Chip, that is exactly where my diagnostic approach began having been there before, I was really was confused and disappointed when that did not turn out to be it. Thanks!

Either will work, but the Z-4000 instructions are for doing it automatically with the Z-4000 PG function.  I have done the manual version with the Z and it works fine.

Hugh, that is a 98 version so if you have boards in it labeled with a 94 they may not be original boards.  Of course they could be and that is just a copy right date.  Some boards have a date code printed on them others are blank.  G