ACL E-8 20-2303 What do I have?

You have an early 5 volt board system in this unit.  The second A is slave board powered with a smoke unit and has no sounds.  I would open up the lead A unit and check out the battery.  This engine was made in 2001 and would have come with a battery that is white in color.  Whether the battery is the original or not I would put in a new one.  You state the engine is talking to you, so I am assuming it is starting up when you apply track power and is missing the watch dog signal from DCS.  I would put in a new battery and see if the unit will run conventionally for starters.  You do not need the B and second A unit hooked up to do these tests.

If the sounds annoy you, just put it on a track section with a conventional transformer and turn down the volume control on the bottom while you charge it.

I would not charge a PS-2 5V board over night, you are asking for trouble.  I would open Lead A as stated and but a new battery in it.  You can use an Alkaline temporarily (just to test it).  G

I don't advocate charging while you're asleep, too much possibility of issues.  I normally just do that when I'm doing something else in the workshop.

I would not charge a PS-2 5V board over night, you are asking for trouble.

Can you elucidate?

He's just thinking of the fire possibility if something goes wrong.  You really should not have track power on a locomotive when the layout is unattended.  Just search here for the stories of high resistance joints catching fire.

I agree that track power should not be left on when unattended. I was thinking in terms of the separate charger. I am uncomfortable with the large number of wall warts on in my house

MTH sells a charger specifically to charge these locomotive batteries.

Yes

Ok sounds like a need new battery

50-1024 protosound battery is what I need

I guess these newer batteries work in the older engines..  would this be true for a 90ish proto  1?

Yes, the 8.4V rechargeable battery works for PS-1 and PS-2 5V.  G

Never put something like that on the track without a new/charged battery.  If you still have the old white battery, throw it away and get the new green battery. 

THe battery I just purchased is blue?  50-1024....shows blue on the MTH site....is that correct or should I be looking at something else?

It should be Green 8.4V, looks like a 9V battery.  50-1008.  G

Pulled out another engine to add.....error message...no engine found.  This happened immediately after having just successfully adding another engine.  Would this be as easy as needing a new battery.  Read another post with the same issue but i think a bad battery was eliminated there.

Also did read and it did not find it.

Also did read and it did not find it.

The READ command only looks for engines that are already in the DCS Remote. An engine that has not yet been added to the DCS Remote will never be found by the READ command.

This and a whole lot more is all in "The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", now available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book from MTH's web store site!

CLICK HERE go to MTH's web page for the book!

Thanks! 

R, not so much fire.  5v boards can be delicate, I just don't think it is wise to run the board to charge a battery, especially one that maybe suspect. G

Hard to say, need more information.  If these engines have sat for several months, it is best to charge the batteries, than do a test run in in conventional to make sure it functions correctly.  Than go add to the dcs system.  If it won't add try a recover engine. G

I bought a charger....it came with batteries...see link below for description of battery.

I can't tell wether this is the 8.4 or the 7.2.  Is there anyway to know.  Bottom line question will these for PS2.

http://www.amazon.com/BTY-Rech...attery/dp/B00ABE7RME

No way I can tell from the amazon ad.  If I had to guess, I'd say 7.2.

I know for sure these are 8.4V models: Tenergy Centura 9V

Here's the technical data sheet for them.

Thanks for all the inupt

gunrunnerjohn - are you telling me my BTY battery is the same as your link....I don't see tenergy Centura anywhere.  I did charge battery and the ACL runs....this leads me to my next issue.

Seems the slave is pulling against the powered engine...to the extent I lost my traction tires.  What is going on there?

Secondly, another PS2 i just recently took out of the box after almost 3 year packed up cannot be found at all.  I put in newly charged battery - nothing at all no click when powered up or anything..seems to be completely dead....did recover engine as suggested in another recent post.   Tried to add immediately after a successful add of the ACL.

I do know I had added to another remote about a month ago and it seemed to be shorting everything so I just put is aside until now.  Now I get nothing.

THis must be pretty frustrating to you sir.

Hang in there and keep listening to the excellent advice you're getting on the Forum. DCS is a lot of fun to use and the rewards of patience are great!

Actually, I'm telling you the Tenergy battery that I pointed to is 8.4 volts, I have no idea about yours.  However, you can check it, after it's charged, just check the terminal voltage.  If it's at least 8.4 volts, it's the proper cell count.  If it's less than 8 volts, it's not the right battery, and it will likely damage the charging circuit at some point.

The battery should say what its rating is.  The increment in 1.2Vs.  6 cell is 7.2v, 7 cell is 8.4V.  MTH needs the 8.4V.  At lower voltages the engine may not run right in conventional or retain memory changes with DCS.

For you slave engine, is the tether fully installed?  Any binding in the trucks of the slave?  Could be a bad harness, bad motor, jammed gears, bad motor wires, loose connector on the slave.

You other engine may have a dead board.  Sounds like it may be a PS-2 5V system (8.4V Battery).  They can die.  The board can be tested or upgraded with the PS-2 3V board.  G

With respect to the dead board - what is the cost to do that  I guess I can send to MTH or MTH repair shop?

With respect to the slave.  tether is tight all gears and trucks look to be ok from just the eyeball test  

when the slave is the lead seem to ok....hard to tell when the powered is lead slave is definite drag...lost traction tires again within 3 ft test at 5-7 mph

Sounds like I need to send both in.  

Changing the tires on this thing is near about impossible so I don't want to have to that again.

Sending you and e-mail.  I am a MTH ASC so I can do this, and probably faster than MTH.  G