Any reason not to harvest PS3 components out of a used 2-8-0 and replace Dead PS2 in a PRR Decapod?

Many early PS2 engines had speakers with the problem of the metal flaking off. I would look at that first.

Speaker or audio amp replacement will be much less than your conversion.  Also, the 2-8-0 will fall short on the harness connections to meet all the light outputs on your 2-10-0.  So you will still need other parts.  Otherwise it can be done.  You just have more wiring then you might think as you need to use the original 10 pin harness modified to six.  G

Like George says, you're setting yourself up for a bit of work, the harness will doubtless fall short, not only in connections, but likely in length as well.

put a fresh nickle hydride battery it is today and has it running, all DCS functions working.  Turned the layout off, it did the engine shutdown sequence.  A couple minutes later w/ the layout dark it did the engine start sequence twice and went quite.  Powered the layout up and the locomotive was unresponsive.

Thoughts?

SO it started and shutdown twice on it's own with NO TRACK power applied at all?  G

Sure seemed to be the behaviour.  Ran it in forward and reverse for about a half hour each way.  Switched a couple of boxcars. Exercised all the softkeys a couple of times.  Shut the layout down, walked into my storage room and hear a startup sequence.  Walked back into the layout room and hear a startup sequence again.  Now when I power up the layout the DCS can not read the engine, nor find it when I force a read from the remote.  When I try to move it from inactive to active, the DCS report that the engine is not on the track.

I don't think PS3 will solve your problem!

Thinking that I would remove all the electronics from the PS2 version and replace with the electronics out of the 2-8-0.  I can fabricate leads my self to address the length issue.  I would leave the smoke unit, lights and coupler in place.  From the 2-8-0 I would harvest the smoke unit and coupler for other projects.  Save the tender for a MOW project.

With the layout shut down, it's impossible for the engine to startup. The battery doesn't power your engine.

Does the PS3 engine work OK on the same track?

So I pulled the replacement battery.  I used a Rayovac Recharge Plus NiMH battery.  Replaced it with a fresh one.  Now the engine responses to reversing unit commands from the remote, the coupler fires, but no sound no lights with the replaced battery.  This behaviour was maintained after doing a factory reset from the DCS remote.

The battery the I installed yesterday and reads at 7.84vdc.  Out of the box they are fully charged and are rated at 8.4vdc.

Other PS2, TMCC, PS3, Conventional all work on the track in question.

Could be the battery clip isn't making contact or a broken wire in the harness which I have seen. Or the PS2 board isn't charging.  Can easily be checked out with a multimeter.

John Allen,

The battery does power the PS2 electronics for short periods of time.  This runs the sound.  A short in the sound subsystem, would account for the battery drain and the engine sounds engaging.  The PS2 logic chip reads the energized circuit from the battery and the de-energized circuit from the track as a momentary interruption in track power and plays the appropriate sound set.  It may not have been a startup/sequence that I heard, I was in another room when it played.  With out a wiring diagram, chip schematic and code documentation, I can not debug this any further.

I am assuming that this is caused by a fault in the sound subsystem in the PS2 boards rather than a physical fault in the wiring.  There is no indication of pinched wires nor other wiring defect that would cause a physical short outside of the chips themselves.

All of this is based on my direct observation, I have absolutely no training in MTH PS2 electronics.  So I may be completely wrong in my assessment.

Just pull the board and have it tested in a PS2 test fixture to see if the board has a problem. GGG is the tech I use and is very reasonable with repairs on these early boards if they can be repaired.

that kind takes the fun out of the process for me

If you like tilting at windmills, just stay on course.

So I put a fully charged NiMH 9 volt in the carrier and left it for about 5 hours and it now reads just over 7.  Repeating it just to make sure the is not an internal short in the battery.

Sounds like the board is broken.

which board and what should I look for?

I've never successfully fixed the charging circuit on a 5V PS/2 board, and I have no idea what to look for there.  The only fixes I've done on them is the light/smoke/coupler triacs and a couple of capacitors that I could reach.  The other thing is the audio amplifier, I have replaced a couple of those.

3V boards have a lot more stuff that can be fixed.

First, you stated that you have no sounds on this engine, but you do hear it start up after you turn power off to layout.  Seems ODD.  Is the board in the engine and battery in tender or both in the tender?  Something is triggering a restart of sounds, but that really is weird and your PS-2 5V board can be going/is bad.  Your not going to resolve it most likely.  It plays shutdown sounds but does not save data to memory, so when you go to use it again the address is not correct to the Remote and you have to re-add the engine.  Best to upgrade it, but go with the PS-32 board with 5V connectors and new 4 ohm speaker. 

But again I am not really following your description completely since you started saying no sounds, so how do you get shut down sounds.  G

On 02/10 I had an engine that would run under transformer control with no sounds or lights.  I did not check the couplers.

on 02/11 I installed a new Rayovac 9v NiMH battery and had full caps, lights sounds, all DCS functions. Ran the unit for An hour forward, and an hour backwards.  Shut the layout down, had the mystery sounds and the dead battery.

Make sense?

A PS2 engine will actually run in DCS mode without a battery. It would be interesting to see what your engine does  without the battery installed. Of course any changes won't be saved in the PS2 board after track power is removed and the engine shuts down.

I'll try that Friday 

Joe Allen,  w/o battery it has no lights and no sound, runs, reverses, coupler fires.

So I have 2 PS 5 volt boards, one completely dead, and one which gets a write error when I try to download a sound file to sector 3.  Where can I find, good steam PS2 boards either 3 volt or 5 volt.  I believe that the PS2 3 volt boards are pin compatible with the 5 volt boards and will be able to use the existing wiring harnesses (excepting the battery lead of course).  Is for the PRR Decapod MTH # 30-1176-1

Thanks

Well, the 3V boards are no longer sold, though they're still floating around in the used market.  However, the PS32 board with 5V connectors is pin compatible with the 5V boards, it's a direct replacement.  Obviously, it has a different form factor, and a different mount, but in most cases you can fit it in.

Sources?

Pin compatible Barry, yes I do realize you have to swap the header shells.

Your last option is not very realistic, you're doing a fresh installation!

John,

Pin compatible Barry, yes I do realize you have to swap the header shells.

I wasn't responding to your post. In fact, I stated that this post was a response I'd posted on the thread that the OP started where he asked exactly, word-for-word, the same question.

Barry Broskowitz posted:

I wasn't responding to your post.

Rob Johnston posted:

Sources?

I have what you need, e-mail in profile.  If you go the PS-2 3V with 5V connector route (usually an easier install then PS-32.  You need 4 ohms speaker of correct diameter and 2.4V Battery or BCR with correct harness.  I have all this.  G