Has anyone does this? MTH tells me that the parts involved are a new coupler and light. The only issue that I see is in getting the wiring in the aux tender adjusted to be PS3 compliant..
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What kind of tender are you converting? The wiring and connector are the same as old PS/1 models, a 4-pin Molex connector. For a PS/3 locomotive, the light will be an LED.
John, it’s a Southern Pacific 20-3037 aux tender. The parts recommended are:
Rear single clear LED - Cost is $10.00 each (for one)
PS2/PS3 Proto-coupler - Cost is $12.00 each (for one)
Any input is appreciated.
Thanks
It is easy enough to do. If PS-1 tender originally you do need the PS-2/3 coupler. IF PS-2 type tender it will already have the correct coupler.
You just need to trace out the aux tether of the PS-3 tender you are connecting this too. You need to ensure you get the coupler wires to the coupler and Reverse Light wires to the Light, polarity matters for LED. That is all that is involved.
Now some tenders have switch to select coupler, and others use a Front Coupler to activate the Aux tender coupler. Again, look at what is in tender that you want to mate too. G
I sure wouldn't pay $10 for a ten cent LED!
John, must the import tax on those Chinese parts!
GGG posted:It is easy enough to do. If PS-1 tender originally you do need the PS-2/3 coupler. IF PS-2 type tender it will already have the correct coupler.
You just need to trace out the aux tether of the PS-3 tender you are connecting this too. You need to ensure you get the coupler wires to the coupler and Reverse Light wires to the Light, polarity matters for LED. That is all that is involved.
Now some tenders have switch to select coupler, and others use a Front Coupler to activate the Aux tender coupler. Again, look at what is in tender that you want to mate too. G
Thank you. I didn’t think that it would be very complicated.
A lot of the Chinese stuff has the 10% import duties, but I haven't seen much movement in the pricing yet. I see a lot of the stuff I order on Digikey that says Inport Duty Applied.
gunrunnerjohn posted:A lot of the Chinese stuff has the 10% import duties, but I haven't seen much movement in the pricing yet. I see a lot of the stuff I order on Digikey that says Inport Duty Applied.
Thanks John. I’ll stick with the MTH LED. I don’t have access to many electronic stores where I live and I don’t trust myself to order something on line.
John:
If I understand this conversation correctly could I convert my RailKing N&W Aux Tender to my 30-1481-1 Imperial “J” which is a PS2, 3 Volt? I understand I would need to drill out where the light would mount and change the rear coupler!
Sounds right to me Rick, it's a pretty simple conversion. If the Aux Tender is a PS/1, you will need a new coupler. For PS/2, a 6V bulb will be required for the backup light.
John:
Thank You now my question is how do you tell the difference between couplers? I picked this tender up used with no box so I am not even sure of the stock/model number of the tender.
Interesting question. There are no markings and MTH does not rate them, on the box, as ps 1 2 or 3.
Measure the resistance of the coupler. If it's in the 2-3 ohm range, it's a PS2/3 coupler, if it's 5 ohms or more, it's a PS/1 coupler.
MTH PS-2 couplers have patent writing on them and PS-1 do not. If you have a PS-1 and PS-2 engine look at the coupler you will see the difference.
For this conversion, your engine tender needs the external harness and wiring inside of it. If the engine did not come with it you have to add it and splice into the original Reverse Light and Reverse coupler wiring. SO that is more involved. G
Obviously, the primary tender has to be wired for the aux tender, that would up the complexity if that's not already in place.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Sounds right to me Rick, it's a pretty simple conversion. If the Aux Tender is a PS/1, you will need a new coupler. For PS/2, a 6V bulb will be required for the backup light.
John, I traced the wiring in the main tender back to thevtether that connects to the aux tender. The light bulb appears to using the center two wires and the outer pair is used by the coupler. Is it possible that there is no wiring change needed? Simply a matter of connecting the new coupler and the light in the aux tender?
Keep in mind that ANY wire coming from the PS/3 board MUST not be grounded or very bad things happen to your board! If the wires never get grounded, it could be that simple.
I am mildly perplexed. The LED came from MTH with a connector on it that matches the female connector in the aux tender. I wired the new coupler identically to the old one. When the engine is powered up and put in reverse, the aux rear coupler opens as it should and the main tender’s light is unlit. But, the aux tender LED does not light. Any thoughts?
Hard to say, I'd first check the polarity of the LED vs the polarity of the feed from the primary tender.
Ok, the red lead from the LED is the hot wire, and the LED lights! There is a small circuit board at the front of the aux tender that the two inner wires connect to the led female plug in the tender. I can do one of two things: 1) reverse the connections on the circuit board, or 2) cut the wires inside the aux tender and reverse them. What’s you opinion?
Mission accomplished!
The new coupler is a direct swap out with the old one. The new LED’s wiring was the reverse of the old bulb’s wiring. I snipped the wires, matched them, and soldered them together. Everything works!
Clearly, I'd modify the aux tender.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Clearly, I'd modify the aux tender.
It’s done and all works!
The object of the exercise.