Advice Needed: Hitting the direction button kills my PS2/PS3 locos

It's either the battery or the charging circuit in the PS/2 board, the PS/3 board likely has bad supercaps or they're simply not soldered correctly, I've seen both.

You're going to find that you need the batteries (or supercaps), even for command running.  A momentary power glitch, say going over a switch, will also reset the electronics without a battery (or supercap) and result in the locomotive stopping on the spot.  You will want to address this issue.

@PiedmontNick posted:

I'm hoping when my new DCS WTIU arrives that will correct the problem with these two engines since it provides constant track voltage. My six other MTH Premier Genesis locos work fine on the layout as they should.

And you are going to find you need a working battery or capacitor setup in command too. Why? Because then you perform the add engine setup in DCS, the engine negotiates the new ID to listen for with the remote or app. The app stores that new ID in the app or remote, but the engine has to store it too. There lies the problem- the firmware in the engine does not store that new ID until the power shutdown sequence run solely by battery or super capacitor power after track power is cut as part of the shutdown sequence.

One of the symptoms of a bad backup power system on PS2 or PS3 is each time you go to run the engine you have to keep adding it to your remote or app and it keeps incrementing the ID. This is again, because when you add engine, he new ID is stored in volatile RAM memory. It's not stored into more permanent memory unit the shutdown sequence and so failing for that to happen because of a bad backup system (battery or supercars) the processor just dies and the RAM with it. The next time the engine boots up when powered, it uses the OLD ID stored in memory and that ID no longer matches what was stored in your remote or app. You app or remote reports engine not on track eve though you just were previously running it before power was lost and returned from one running session to another.

Just trying to impress upon you, PS2 and PS3 still need a working backup power subsystem- both charging and then being able to use that stored charge for critical functions. It's not just for conventional operation.

@Vernon Barry posted:

And you are going to find you need a working battery or capacitor setup in command too. Why? Because then you perform the add engine setup in DCS, the engine negotiates the new ID to listen for with the remote or app. The app stores that new ID in the app or remote, but the engine has to store it too. There lies the problem- the firmware in the engine does not store that new ID until the power shutdown sequence run solely by battery or super capacitor power after track power is cut as part of the shutdown sequence.

I hope he got that from my previous post...

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

You're going to find that you need the batteries (or supercaps), even for command running.  A momentary power glitch, say going over a switch, will also reset the electronics without a battery (or supercap) and result in the locomotive stopping on the spot.  You will want to address this issue.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I hope he got that from my previous post...

So what you're telling me is....I should stop sitting here blowing on it hoping for the best like an old video game cartridge?

Alas, I think you're right. I took the PS3 board completely out and apart this afternoon and reassembled it after inspection. Visually, everything looks good to go so something is likely fried internally. Now the long wait begins for MTH to get some new PS3 boards in stock... womp womp.

Thanks for confirming my fears...

--Nick N.

Well, repairs are quite possible for many issues on PS/2 boards, and for the supercap issues on PS/3 boards, that's also a likely repair.  Obviously, if the circuit that charges them is bad, you're out of luck for PS/3.

PS-3 can be a bad Super cap or a bad solder joint, so that PS-3 board most likely is repairable.  The PS-2 3V is repairable, but a dead battery or bad harness is also possible.   If you put them on the track and turn off track power and they do not play shutdown sounds, the battery is not working, nor the super cap.

I can repair.  Email in profile.  G