FT trailing unit PS 3 upgrade

Hi yes you can remove the unwanted wires but be sure you don't take out the wrong ones! the best way is to connect all the harness's that come with the ps3 kit and then. then power up with all harness's connected and turn ditch light etc and one at a time turn all lights on and then you'll get the right ones you need. The smoke unit etc the smoke unit heating element wires should a red connector and the blue connectors are for the headlight!

The purple wire is the PV voltage to power up the smoke heating element red connector. and brown wire polarity does not matter! but the smoke motor wires do matter because if you hook it up backward the smoke motor will run backwards and not puff!

Alan

On this FT A unit there is 2 green lights next to the number boards, I believe these are marker lights, they are connected by a small contact board on the chassis,

are the original lights LEDs? They appear to be but I am not sure.

please correct me if I am wrong,

the marker light wires from the new PS3 40pin connector need to be soldered to this small contact board.

@Harlee62 posted:

On this FT A unit there is 2 green lights next to the number boards, I believe these are marker lights, they are connected by a small contact board on the chassis,

are the original lights LEDs? They appear to be but I am not sure.

please correct me if I am wrong,

the marker light wires from the new PS3 40pin connector need to be soldered to this small contact board.

Yes, the class lights are 2mm ceramic LED's.

Will these LEDs work with the PS3 upgrade I am installing?

the small LEDs that came with the kit look the same.

Yep, you just have to check the wiring to see if they're wired in series like the ones in the kit.

The lights have a contact board on the chassis and spring contract on the shell. You can see in the pictures.

would it be possible to retain this board by soldering the wires from the 40-pin connector to the board?

Looking at the wiring diagram in the PS3 instructions these lights would be the marker lights, correct?

Correct, they'd be labeled as markers on the connector.

Thank you guys for all the information.

pretty confident I can complete the hardware installation. Programming I may have more questions.

I'm not able to work on the locomotive for a few days but will post an update as soon as I can get back on it.

so far the installation is going well I believe. I did run into what seems like a minor concern

the smoke on - off switch.

the FT A trailing unit does not have the smoke on-off switch. It is on the lead unit.

What do I need to install one?

Is this switch necessary?

If you're running the trailing smoke unit off the board in the lead unit, no smoke switch for it is required.

I am converting a trailing unit to PS3 fully independent operating A unit.

is the switch still necessary? How would it be wired in?

That's different.  In that case, it's wired just like the lead unit since they would presumably be identical electronics.

The electronics are all from the PS3 upgrade kit which does not include a smoke switch.
the lead unit is PS2 which is part of a complete ABA working set.

The training unit I am converting is a separate unit

not sure if this makes any difference.

Looking at the diagram from the kit, would it be possible to connect the blue wire going to the heating wand the gray wire going to the fan motor to one side of the switch and come out the other side to the heating element and fan motor.

The PS/3 diesel upgrade kit does indeed include a smoke switch.  In the diagram it's the 10K pot to adjust smoke volume.  You can replace it with a switch to just have on/off control of the smoke.  Note that this only affects conventional mode, the smoke and volume in command mode are controlled by the remote, the physical controls are ignored.

I saw the pot, I was thinking it only controlled the smoke volume, so in conventional mode it will actually turn the smoke off and adjust smoke volume, correct?

Correct, if you turn it all the way down, the smoke is off in conventional mode.

In all the years I’ve had my MTH trains I did not know this.

probably because I don’t use conventional mode.

thank you

Would it be a good idea to power up with the shell OFF to test all lights and couplers? This way it’s possible to make any corrections easily before tying everything up and removing any unused wires.

I always test every install before installing the shell, whether it be DCS, TMCC, or anything else.

Thank you. My idea is to make sure all is working then remove any unused wires and shorten the remaining as necessary to complete a clean install.

When removing excess wiring, remember to leave a little extra so repairs/replacement can be performed at a later date.

Great tip thanks.

I am mainly focusing on unused light wires.

You can remove the unwanted control wires from the 40 pin and clip the PV lead once you know what is not used.  PS-2 molex plugs can have polarity for markers reversed from PS-3 so just make sure you have the polarity correct.  If you don't used conventional you can omit the vol/smoke pots, but they are nice feature if you sell later.  G

On first power up, the upgrade instructions say to start in conventional mode, I assume this is to confirm movement, all lights, smoke unit and couplers are working and there are no excessive current draws.

I read in another post about needing to use a minimum length cables from the TIU or Z4000 to the track, however I didn’t see anything about this in the PS3 upgrade instructions.

Also, is it possible to program the locomotive using the remote to the TIU or does it have to be done with the Z4000?
I have both so just wondering. I prefer to use the best recommended way to eliminate issues.

GGG

thanks for the reply

will be removing the unused wire after initial testing.

Actually, the smart money may be removing the unused wiring BEFORE testing, might as well test the final configuration.

Thanks John,

that was my initial thought going by the diagram and knowing the FT does not have all the lights anyway. Definitely will make a neater bundle.

Grj,

Does the DCS/conventional mode switch need to be mounted? The Chassis does not have a cut out that fits the switch. There is a smoke on-off switch opening I could use if necessary.

If you mean the DCS/DCC switch, you don't need it if you don't run DCC.  For DCS the switch wiring is connected together.

is it worthwhile to leave the switch installed? Maybe if I decide to sell or for initial set up and programming?

Entirely up to you what you do there.  Personally, I never installed the DCS/DCC switch as I never intend on running them in DCC mode.

Sound logical, will probably do the same.

I have a programming question, is it ok to post it here, it is related to this locomotive project.

Works for me.

The original locomotive is the MTH 2-2563-1 FT ABA Harley Davidson PS2.0. I have the sound files for PS2.0.
my question is, can I install the original sound file after installing the FT chain file?

or is the sound file and chain file the same?

Ok I think I figured out the sound file question, as long as the PS 2.0 sound file is from the 3V PS 2.0 system it will work with PS 3.0. But can‘t go from PS3 to PS2.

@Harlee62 posted:

Ok I think I figured out the sound file question, as long as the PS 2.0 sound file is from the 3V PS 2.0 system it will work with PS 3.0. But can‘t go from PS3 to PS2.

Correct, PS/3 files are usually 4mb, and the maximum memory on the 3V boards is 2mb.