MTH 30-1571 PS3 Steam Switcher is not detected on my Hand Held when trying to add to the system

Try charging the battery or replacing with a new one.   Joe

@Rigatoni Express Railroad posted:

Try charging the battery or replacing with a new one.   Joe

It's PS3, there is no battery. If it was a PS2, even without a battery installed the engine will still respond to DCS commands.

@WashRR posted:

I deleted the engine from my system and when I try to ADD it back I get a No Engine to Add message.

• I removed all Active Engines from the system.
• Placed the engine a stub and powered the track. 18+ volts present.
• The engine lights up and sound is present at previously set volume level; low.
• The DCS Handheld Controller in the System/ Engine Setup/ ADD  MTH Engine; Response is NO ENGINE to ADD.
• There is no inter action between the engine and controller.

HELP

Charlie

Do a conventional reset on the engine. I get No Engine to Add when DCS ID assign to that engine is already used by another engine. The system see it, thinks it something else and doesn't realize that it should be a "new" engine to the system. Removing an engine from the DCS system won't reset that engine ID number.

Conventional reset does not change engine ID either.  If he deleted the engine and vacated that ID spot in his system, and the engine still has that ID, it would attempt to reload it back in that spot.

Does it have a DCS/DCC switch?  If so is it in the DCS position?   Have you tried a "Recover Engine"? Did the engine really delete?  G

Thanks to all for their suggestions. None have worked.

On the test track I set up the engine sits completely dark. However after awhile it comes to life but not always. Still no response from the controller running through various points; read; add engine; engine setup; reset engine factory and feature reset; and recover engine. This was done when the engine was

1. dark and
2. lights and sound on.

Time to call the doctor.

To GGG;

It has a DCC / DCS and is set to DCS position. I tried the recover engine. The engine never shows up on the controllers; I have 2.

The info is embedded on the TIU.

Thanks,

Charlie

A few things I have tried when I have a stubborn loco:

Clean the wheels, pickups and track.  Even new locos can have dirty wheels.

Make sure the positive terminal is on the center rail and the common on the outside rails.

Use a 15 to 20 foot length of wire between the TIU and the test track.

Agree with above.  Test this by itself.  It also could have switch or wiring issue wrt dcs switch. G

I have no AC or DC Conventional Power Supply with a horn / bell button. I have 2 PS from earlier G and HO.

1. Aristocraft Art-5400 with Pulse Width Control that has DC track voltage.
2. LifeLine390-J with track DC.

Anyway I could use one of these to see if there is life in the engine?

Charlie

I have a similar 0-6-0 from about the same time period that is also a pain to add.  I got it work with my main layout, but whether or not i do a factory reset, I set it on a track with a dcs explorer and the engine can't be found, even though other engines can be found by the explorer on the same track. I will try to add the product number later tonight or tomorrow.

I looked, mine is 30-1660-1.  It is from a couple years after yours.  It is also a ps3 0-6-0.  This is the one engine I have that has always acted a little squirrelly getting loaded into the remote, or acting like it was dead when I tried to run it in conventional.   

i would try a conventional reset with z4000 mth transformer!

Alan

@jhz563 posted:

I looked, mine is 30-1660-1.  It is from a couple years after yours.  It is also a ps3 0-6-0.  This is the one engine I have that has always acted a little squirrelly getting loaded into the remote, or acting like it was dead when I tried to run it in conventional.   

30-1660-1 | MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS (mthtrains.com)

have you ever looked at the routing of the wiring?

MTH PS3 Steam - Positioning of Power Wires in the Tender.pdf (ogaugerr.com)

Alan; I was in the process of looking to borrow a Z4000 or similar.

Engineer Joe; No I have not checked the routing of the wires in the tender.  I down loaded the link you supplied and it looks very promising. I was about to disassemble the tender to check DCS / DCC switch. So I will soon know if the re-routing will work.

Thanks for your leads.

Charlie

Engine Joe; Your link to Mark DeVecchio (SanDiegoMark) was right on.  I re-routed the power wires per his photo. While doing this I found the RED leads a bit too long for the twist connector so I sniped a bit off. This might explain the intermittent  start up that was present earlier.

Problem solved and forever thankful.

Charlie

@Engineer-Joe posted:

30-1660-1 | MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS (mthtrains.com)

have you ever looked at the routing of the wiring?

MTH PS3 Steam - Positioning of Power Wires in the Tender.pdf (ogaugerr.com)

Okay that is absolutely wild, but it costs me nothing to reroute the wiring over top of the boards.   I will have to look into it this weekend.   

Thank you very much for sharing this.  The problems with this engine have been intermittent, and some type of weird interference fits the bill for the problems.

Glad to read that this helped out OP.

Jhz563

YES! Always good to get at least one thing right today.

I had a broken furnace, broken sink, broken engine, now a broken DCS remote. Too much for one day.

Hmmm, good thread, I need to explore an engine tender too!

Okay, I had time to take a look this morning.   Indeed, the power wires were under the board.  Interestingly the board was angled up a little bit until the heat sink was touching one of the capacitors.   In my case there was some heat sink paste on the capacitor.  I wonder if the contact between the heat sink and the cap could have contributed to the problem. Anyway, I rerouted the wires over the top, didn't disconnect anything.

I tried it at first on the Christmas tree loop with a z4000 and it would power up, the whistle worked, but cycling the power did not result in the engine moving.

After that I took it downstairs and fired it up with the dcs.  Solid 10 around the loop, but I didn't check it before.   Did a factory reset and brought it back to the tree loop.   Low and behold it suddenly worked in conventional!!  I will have to reload it into the remote later,  and see if it responds in conventional without being reset.

Anyway this is the first time this thing has worked in conventional for years.  Thanks for the help!

Not sure how this could effect Conv operations.  DCS yes.  I have yet to run into an engine that ran in DCS but not conventional.  Usually the other way round.  But poor AC ground, or center rail power can cause issues.  But if no AC it does not run in either mode.  G

Just repositioning the wires did the trick. Never checked the conventional running.

Thanks to engineer-joe for the link to the original solution article written by Mark.

And foremost thanks to Mark for writing and submitting the article OgaugeRR  Mag.

MTH PS3 Steam - Positioning of Power Wires in the Tender.pdf (ogaugerr.com)

This article should be on your 1st page of troubleshooting DCS!

Charlie

My comments were about/for jhz.  This has been discussed significantly about diesel boards.  Less for steam.  Good post and pictures can be found for the same issue with diesel boards.  G