Grrrrrrr.. PS2 SD60 just died

Sam,

It is a used engine from 2005 with the 5v boards

It's possible that the engine had some miles on it and a piece of wire insulation in the truck had rubbed off, thereby setting the stage for a short.

Where did you purchase the engine? There's a possibility that the engine had a "preexisting condition".

The fact it was a 5V board.  Unfortunately this can happen with them. Only recourse is finding a donor PS-2 5V, or replacing with the PS-2 3V and hardware kit.  G

Yes, Barry - It was used and had  some time (I forgot to check how much when I received it) but I had run it several times at the club with no problem and it ran fine on the bench for a minute.

Bought it here on the Forum and have no indication that the seller knew there was a problem beforehand.

George, I may have a working 5v board around here somewhere and we met a local tech at the Asheville show this weekend who might take a look at it for me.  I'll let you know what we find. 

I was just 'venting' here!

The SD70 is a dummy

Sam,

Try to stay away from any engine with a 5 volt board. It's old technology and not worth the trouble IMO. 

Sorry to hear about your locomotive Sam.....I too have had problems with the 5v boards. 

Alan

The good news is you can rip out those boards toss them in the trash and upgrade to an ERR board with railsounds 5.0... a locomotive with a new lease on life!

You can also pick up the 3V PS/2 board with the 5V connectors and get it running much easier for the same money.  You just need a 4 ohm speaker and the new battery/charging jack cable and the new board.

GRJ, this may have just happened to me. In-line 5-amp breaker opened and loco smells burned.

Loco is an RK 30-1335-1 Mohawk with the board & pickup rollers in the loco itself and the battery & speaker in the tender.  So the tether is not the normal wiring.  Haven't taken it apart yet to check if some other wire has shorted, but I'm not optimistic.

Not a good sign. The burnt smell is almost universally bad for a 5V board!

FWIW, the configuration of that one is one of the standard wiring schemes that MTH uses for PS/2 steamers.  If there's room in the locomotive for the board, it makes it easier to have extra features like cab lights, markers, etc.  The 10 wires in the tether are somewhat limiting when the board is in the tender, that's why they have the mux boards.

The replacement board still works the same way, you just have to work out the mounting for the 3V board set in the locomotive.  Even though it's smaller, sometimes it seems to be difficult to get it into the same space.

Any idea how to remove the boards?  I don't see any screws for it, and I can't find a parts list or exploded view on the MTH site.  EDIT:  Never mind, I found the screw under the loco.

When a board burns, can you visibly see anything?

I'd guess that one would be removed from under the chassis.  The mounting screw typically goes through the rectifier next to the connections on the opposite end from the large square relay.  I see a mounting bracket on the rectifier that is under the one torroid, that appears to go down to the frame.  I'd look for the mounting screw under the chassis near that point.

RJR,

The screw behind the roller down the hole holds the bracket for the PS2 board.

Not sure on the green? if red I think it's a voltage regulator used with the 5 volt system. It should be insulated from the chassis.

Robert,

The voltage regulator is specific to all 5 volt boards and isn't present with the 3 volt board. Also, although it's a long shot, a bad regulator will cause a 5 volt board to go dead.

The regulator should be easily removed by 1 screw into the chassis, and then slide off the connector at the end of the 3 wires. Just don't lose the insulator.

Color is an issue with me.  Wife tells me it's red.

I've yet to see a bad regulator, but there's always hope.  If you're smelling burnt smells from the board set, I'd rate the probability of the regulator being bad at about .01%.

To just pull the board to examine it more closely, you can just pull the connector off the regulator, no need to remove it from the chassis.

RJR,

If you put another board in the engine, I highly recommend using a Z-4000 with amp meter or an amp meter as you slowly raise the voltage. The Z-4000 saved a replacement board for me when the amps went up to 2 with only low voltage. I had checked all the wires and such, but I found on a second look, it was small round roller insulator installed wrong on a GG1,

The PS-2 3V is the same size as the 5V board.  The issue is normally the location of the heatsink.  The 5V rectifier was forward and used to mount, the 3V has the rectifier in the rear.

That one looks like you may have to mount upside down like the current board, or if you can find a spot to mount the heatsink right side up.  Orientation may have to stay the same since those harness look short.

You will also have to be inventive installing the battery depending how the harness is configured in the tender.  Make sure you get polarity correct.  G

Normally you won't see any damage, you may see a polarized CAP that has swollen, and in the middle you may see 2 smd diodes that may be damaged.  Otherwise nothing really visible on these failures.   G

Joe, that is good advice whenever one has the shell off.

GGG, sounds like it will not quite be a simple switcheroo.

There is a lot of wire, I think, twisted under the wire ties.

Well, you can always splice though I try to avoid that.  Once you get the board off and the wires out of the way shoot a picture of the chassis from the top looking down.  I have used the gear box screw to hold the PS-2 3V bracket.  Where you can screw the heatsink in will be an issue.  It can be done just depends how good your at with making a bracket and putting the puzzle together. 

In this case, you maybe able to reverse the 5V bracket so it points to the front, and than mount the 3V rectifier to it with a screw, washer and nut.  This requires separating the boards, mounting the bracket on the PS than reassembling the boards.    G

Well I have repaired the 4-8-2, by taking a 5-volt board out of a Doodlebug & putting it into the loco.

I'll put the 5>3 volt replacement in the Doodlebug, where there is more room.  I did find out this:  while the 5-volt & 3-volt boards are the same size, the location of the rectifier and its heat sink is further from the from of the board on the 5-volt than the 3 volt.  In a tight space, this can present a problem.

I'm currently making a custom aluminum heatsink for a 3V board to go into the Niagara, no easy way to use the stock heatsink.

I've always had a problem getting nice straight bends.  How do you do it?

Heat and a vice.  If you try to bend it without heat, it's much more difficult.  For the 3V board, I'll put the aluminum below the rectifier and use a large washer on the other side if I can't get the 180 degree bend right.  I've made other ones, but not for the 3V PS/2 package before.

Never have tried heat on aluminum

You also have to have the right aluminum alloy.  If it's painted, it's normally able to bend with no heat.  The aluminum sheet usually requires heat to anneal it and make it easier to bend.  I use a propane torch.

I did some quick binging and came up with

http://www.ehow.com/how_576135...-aluminum-plate.html

So you let it cool before bending.  I'll have to try that.

Yep, you're basically removing the tempering of the metal.

GR,

I have 3v PS2 board set in an RS11. Can I tranplant that directly as a replacement to a failed 5v board set in another engine? Sounds like yes for the most part.

Thanks

Scott, no.  You need to move over the connectors from the 5V to the 3V and you need to change the speaker to 4ohm and the battery and harness to 2.4V.  G

I have not had any problems bending the heat sinks as long as your not bending a current crease back the other direction.

I just use a vice and pliers.  I recycle the 5V in many cases or modify the 3V.  Sideways, upside down, rear facing, side facing, etc...  G

You can simply work the connector shells off the board "CAREFULLY" and use the ones from the 5V board to replace them.  You have magically transformed it into a 3V board with 5V connectors with that procedure.  I've done this to several 3V boards when I needed a replacement 5V board.  Use a little heat on the connector shells to slide them off the pins, they come off much easier that way.

After that, the speaker and battery harness will complete the transformation for the new board.

Correct.  While they are "intended" to be one piece sockets, and there is a small bump in the pins to hold the shell, they come off.  That is how MTH does them when they ship one for this use, that surprised me a bit.

They are only recently doing that as they don't seem to have the hirose connector at the factory anymore. So I think they may have stopped making AE-15/16 at the factory.  In reality the pins are different too, but are the same basic shape and size that it works.

I normally don't file anything off on the heatsinks.  I cut them with nipper pliers.  I than dress the cut up with a file.  I have actually used that ridge in the 5V as a backing against the 3V rectifier as a sort of locking device.

MTH uses many different heat sinks with only one side of the rectifier covered, so it is not an issue.  G

I'll be making a "one sided" heatsink for the Niagara with aluminum plate as nothing in the stock stable looks even close.

What is so different in the Niagara?

Where the board mounts there is no way to use the standard heatsink.

Is the board in the tender or the loco?

The board in this one is in the locomotive.