I recently dug my MTH 20-2222-1 DL-109 ALCO out of the box, and everything worked great for a few days. THEN, the mars light stopped working completely for a few days, then the light came back on, but doesn't flash...it just stays on steady. Anyone got any ideas for a fix? Thanks in advance!
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hi you can read threw the mth manual from mth this is pa ps2 engine ad if you powered it up and the battery was dead or weak it may need a reset here is the manual from mthtrains.com
https://mthtrains.com/sites/de...ction/20dl15938i.pdf
read threw and try a 18 feature reset or if you have the mth z4000 you can reset your engine with that transformer
Alan
p.s. send me an email and ill walk you threw the rest ok!
Thanks, Alan- I did the 18 reset, but nothing changed on the Mars. I believe it's Proto 1. I called MTH, but their customer service guy really didn't have any ideas but to bring it to the closest MTH repair shop (5 hours away).
Oh- I put one of those BCRs in it, since it can be a while between runs on my big MTH locos-
It does seem weird that the manual makes no mention of the mars light at all, just a generic "how to change the light bulbs" paragraph.
do you have THE Z4000 transformer?
No Z4000; I'm using an MRC Dual-Power 0-27. I'm pretty old-school, transformer-wise.
send me an email and I'll give you my phone number and can walk you threw somethings that might help ok
email on the way!
This is a ProtoSound engine, right? That number is not a PS/2 engine. The ProtoSound engine MARS light is on a separate lighting board, something there may have croaked. There is no programming you can do, I suspect something failed.
It's a PS1 unit-
The MARS or any blinking light for PS-1 would be on the 2 pin plug on the top of the PS-1 sound board. Requires a chip designed to operate it. Since it was working, then just went solid no blinking, I would think the Reset 18 would work, but may have to press whistle button twice. First time hold until you get garbled sound followed by clear. Release. Press a second time. Then come out of reset. Remember battery must be fully charged. G
George, I'm going to have to call you on that one. Some PS/1 had a separate lighting board that generated the MARS light. AAMOF, here is the board I removed from a PS/1 upgrade. It generates the blinking MARS light all the time, and it outputs a 6V headlight in response to the 1.5V output of the PS/1 H/L output. I just plugged this in on the bench to verify the operation.
Also note, but this doesn't seem to be the problem in this case, is the Mars light is a special 3 volt bulb.
Chuck, what drives that MARS light? Where does 3V come from, and what kind of bulb is it?
John, not sure what you mean by what drives the Mars light. I think the cap on the board is part of it. The 3 volts is from the circuit board, again, probably not understanding you question. The bulb is a GOW.
The PS/1 board has 1.5V light outputs, that's why the question. Is this from the strobe output on the board?
The board posted above by gunrunnerjohn is exactly the type that's in the locomotive. Please note that I have "reset 18" several times now but nothing has changed. Per suggestion, I also used the Proto1 reset chip and reset everything to no avail. Probably not a huge deal, because everything else is working great, but I tend to go OCD when a feature isn't performing as advertised.
I'm guessing the board has died. Fancy that, I have a replacement for you. 
I know the flashing light is working as I had it working on the bench.
My mistake, I had beacon on my mind since I was working an engine like that. You are correct mars lights on PS-1 have the CV board with the flash circuit added. IT IS A 6V bulb. Before buying another, make sure solder joints on vertical board are good. Also swap one bulb in, just incase the bulb wires intermittent. Also check for cracked solder joint under the molex connector that the bulb plugs into.
All the bulbs off that board are 6V, the use a jumper of the relay coil to control a transistor to turn on and off the directional HL. G
Nope. It is a 3 volt bulb. Not going to get much action with a 6 volt bulb.
I believe this one was plugged into the headlight connector on the PS/1 board, and it has a opto-isolator for the light trigger. I put 1.5VDC on it to test it on the bench, that did the trick.
You're right Chuck, the 6V bulb was pretty dim, but it was working. I was thinking maybe a 1.5V bulb, but that would have been too easy, MTH had to pick yet another unique voltage bulb! 
I believed you Chuck. 
Would it be fair to say that if the issue were a bad solder joint the light wouldn't be coming on at all?
Not necessarily, the logic to do the blinking may be the fault. It's easy to look around with a magnifier and see if anything obvious pops up. Truthfully, I suspect a component failure is more likely, but anything's possible.
I had the same problem on a Williams circuit board. The beacon light was on, but did not flash. The problem I found was a cold solder joint that was connected to the timer chip. little touch of the soldering pencil and all was fixed. Check the solder side of your circuit board, that may be where the problem lies.
Is it possible you can get some clear close up's of the other side of the board shown?
Done messing with it for today- I'll see what I can do; thanks!
It's a fairly simple board, shouldn't be too difficult to see what is driving the flashing lights. My guess is the 555 timer chip near the back of the board.
Nope 6V sorry. When driven off CV board, vice yellow connector of the bottom board. Go to MTH web and the parts list shows MARS light as CB-0000003. Description from MTH part site: (6v) (single bulb) (60.0mm long wires w/ white 2-pin male plug) (3.0mm gow) (mars light).
Here is from a representative PS-1 F-3 20-2198-1 parts list item #22 which uses a similar CV board for lights.
Bulb ( clear )(6v)(mars light) CB-0000001 3.00
( 70.0mm white wires w/ white plug )( grain of wheat )
All CV board lights are 6V and flash fine when the flash board works. Yes, as I stated the board does trigger the directional HL off the Relay, but bulb is 6V. G
FYI, since I see no mention of it, I believe the light only flashes when the locomotive is moving in forward. I'll admit I could be wrong as I haven't run mine is a very long time. But it seems that's what I remembered as I noticed that it didn't blink all the time.
The headlight on the PS/1 board only turns on when the the engine is in motion. However, on my board, the flashing circuit is on all the time with track power. There is one socket for the MARS/Beacon output, continuous with track power. One headlight output, 6V bulb, on when 1.5V or more is applied to the headlight input. Two 6V outputs that are continuously on for markers, number boards, cab lights, etc.
It's actually not a bad MARS light simulation they do with one incandescent bulb.
Yes- when the locomotive was working correctly, the "mars" is on continually, but the headlight only when in forward-
Curious, since several of you seem to do that- what is the cost of a Proto "upgrade?" I'm thinking particularly of my Proto1 BL-2 (Premier) that has only been a problem child since I got it many years ago. I've already sunk close to $200 in "repairs" by MTH...none of which seem to solve the problem.
Gee, you could have been most of the way to a PS/3 upgrade at that point!
That's what I was afraid of!
If you e-mail me I can give you a quote. G
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