Dead LCT 390E

Was there a battery in it that entire time?  What is the status of the battery now?

Steve, I'll be interested to hear how this works out.  I have two 390E's from the same catalog.  Like Uberstationmeister suggested, I'd leave it on a powered track for 10 minutes and see if that wakes it up.  Fingers crossed.

Steve,

Sorry to hear you are having trouble.

Try a conventional reset: put it on a track then power it up with a Z-4000 or Z-1000, then give it 1 horn button tap, and 5 bell taps in quick succession.

If it works the loco with give two toots of the whistle, and act normally.

Try it a few times.

This is standard gauge so that pickup assembly can be an issue.  Does this have anything in the tender or is everything in engine?  I believe tender is a dummy.  I would remove the center pickup assembly and power directly to the internal tab and chassis frame while in the craddle.  If it powers up your issue is the connection between the pickup assembly and the internal tab on the engine.  G

@David Johnston posted:

Was there a battery in it that entire time?  What is the status of the battery now?

No battery. P3’s have a built in capacitor

Steve

@GGG posted:

This is standard gauge so that pickup assembly can be an issue.  Does this have anything in the tender or is everything in engine?  I believe tender is a dummy.  I would remove the center pickup assembly and power directly to the internal tab and chassis frame while in the craddle.  If it powers up your issue is the connection between the pickup assembly and the internal tab on the engine.  G

Bypassing the pick up was the first thing I did. Have had that problem a few times before. Nothing in the tender, everything is in the loco.

thanks

Steve

Time for the tech to test board. Might be something simple like a connector out, but sounds like something on board went bad.  G

@GGG posted:

Time for the tech to test board. Might be something simple like a connector out, but sounds like something on board went bad.  G

GGG, do the reset functions work with a dead loco. My understanding is there has to be some signs of life for resets to work.

Steve

Yes there has to be life of some sort.  Some time the processor get scramble and all features would be off (lights and sounds) which might make you think it is dead, but smoke could be turned on, couplers fired and such.  So a feature or factory reset would turn all that on.  I see it most often on 5V boards when battery dead.  Engine sits dark and quite.  I have not seen that on PS-3.  So the head light should come on, or the engine should have loaded into DCS.  Factory reset is not going to fix those items despite it getting recommended by some.  Nother urban myth.

This is the case when you have an amp meter like on  a Z-4000 you can see if the board is drawing current but staying none responsive.  That lets you know the board is getting power.

If you are comfortable removing the shell, getting the connectors off the board carefully you could send just the board for testing.  G