Flashing Sound File Issue

Marc,

 

Are you, by any chance, powering the TIU via the USB port and using a TIU channel other than Fixed #1 for the engine? If you are, be aware that's typically not a good combination. Use Fixed #1 instead.

Hi Barry,

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

It's an older model TIU (rev H) so there's only the serial port.  I'm only using Fixed 1 right now being powered up by a ZW.  Hope this helps.  Is the flash memory on the PS2 board part of the DSP IC or is it a separate IC altogether?

 

Marc

 

Marc,

 

FYI, you don't "flash" the sound file to the engine, you upload it to RAM.

Is the flash memory on the PS2 board part of the DSP IC or is it a separate IC altogether?

It's a separate RAM chip. The DSP on the 3 volt board is an FPGA.

 

Do a signal strength test on the TIU's channel. If it's too low, the sound file transfer may fail.

Thanks Barry,  I'll do that tonight and let you know the results.

 

Marc

 

Yes. Very are, but sometimes a bad segment won't let a board load.  G

Try loading with DC.

i checked the signal quality and it's a 10.  Just wondering if I should swap out the bottom board with a known good one and see if the transfer will work?  I'm assuming the top board is mostly for AC to DC power conversion and filtering.

 

Marc

Hi Marty,

 

I didn't think you could feed DC straight into a PS2 board.

 

Marc

Marc,

 

PS2 and PS3 O gauge engines can operate under DCS using either AC or DC voltage. As Marty suggests, put 18 volts DC into Fixed #1 Input and se if things improve.

I was completely unaware of that, learn something new every day.  I'll try it out.

 

Marc

if you run it under dc do you have to  watch the polarity red positive and black negative?

Alan

Hi Guys, 

 

I put a nice clean 18VDC into the TIU, no issues there.  Tried the transfer again and it still fails out on sector 8.

 

Marc

Does your board have enough memory? Some of the early kits had only so much compared to the later kits.

Hi Gregg,

During the transfer process it displays that the board has 2MB of memory.

Defective board.

Marc, did you look around to see if an updated sound file is available?  Gregg made a very good point.  Early  boards were only 1 meg files.  If you are trying to load a later file you may need a 2 meg board.  You can tell your board by looking at the big chip on the bottom.  It will say Sharp on the 2 meg chip.  If your board is a bad one, you can contact George (GGG) and he can do his magic.

 

 

Thanks Marty,

 

i was was able to get a replacement board so hopefully that one will be ok.  I'll look out for that in the future.  Thanks again for all the help.  

 

Marc