MTH PS2 Smoke & Sound issues

What a mess. I hope you left negative feedback.

Did you re-install the speaker ? Does it work ok now ?

 

 

 

The one problem that you did was to work on it yourself first without contacting the seller first. Not that I'm defending them, but if the seller is also a forum member and sees this it could lead to his defense for your claim that it doesn't work. Always contact the seller first if it doesn't work. At least give them a chance to make it right. Then if your not satisfied that's when I leave negative feedback. I only left negative feedback once in eBay and after 2 months the mans family contacted me to apologize for not sending me my book that I bought and to explain that the seller had passed away durring that listing. I felt very bad then. Never post something like this until you have it resolved first with the seller, if you don't get your satisfaction then you can explain it. Your showing that you took it apart and now attempting repairs. This is a legal no no!

The few times I did have a problem with an item on Ebay, I always give the seller the chance to make things right. If after talking with the seller and things are not done right and the seller will not help, then give negative feedback as well as take other actions to resolve the problem. Ebay claims they will stand behind the customer on defective items. The only problem I see in your case is that once you "tamper" with the item to see what is wrong, the seller might use that as an excuse to not work with you should you decide to return the item(Just my 2 cents). I know it can be very aggravating when things like this happen.I hope you get a satisfactory solution to the matter.

I've dug through most of my electronics junk bins and haven't found a 16 ohm speaker yet.  I haven't tried cleaning out the deteriorated dust yet, but may give it a shot with some old hard drive magnets.  http://www.parts-express.com/2...aker-16-ohm--289-131 is pretty cheap, but will see if I can find one with better response.  I really don't care about the legalities of this as I'm not attempting to send the engine back for a refund.  It's easier for me to just fix it than deal with that.  I haven't contacted the seller yet as I want to present him with my findings and what it took to fix it.  How he responds to my inquiries will determine his feedback.  Given the volume was turned all the way down on the tender and the smoke switch was "on" with a dried and charred wick, I seriously doubt he tested it before listing it in "excellent running condition".  Packing wasn't the greatest either. The engine and tender each had two layers of small bubble wrap bouncing around in the same box.  Engine had even poked a hole in the side of the box.  What I'm looking for now is technical information on the heating element is powered and controlled by the PS2 system.

I guess I should have been more clear. I looked at the original posting and like 

you said, "Excellent running condition" and that is obviously false. I would at l

east let him know what condition it was in and maybe feed back to let others know.

 He just need to be a little more careful with his postings. I was not trying to start

 any kind of bashing here.

 

 You seem to be pretty handy with repairs, and it looks like  you got a pretty

 good price on it also. It will be a nice experience and when you are done it will

 probably be one of your favorite engines...

 

Yeah, I'd really like to hang on to this provided I can get her properly functioning.  The price seemed right so I'm not screaming too much yet.  I cleaned all the chrome powder that had flaked up out of the voice coil and magnet.  Using some strong hard drive magnets really helped to pull the metallic dust off the driver magnet.  Much louder and clearer than before, but definitely could use a speaker upgrade.  However, I have another sound related issue now... Whistle and Bell work fine, but there's no engine or yard sounds.  The speaker was in such bad shape before I couldn't tell if there were engine sounds or not.  Could barely hear the whistle until I cleaned it up.  I'll put it into neutral and passenger/yard mode and she sits silent.  In this mode, the whistle won't work either which tells me its actually in the yard mode according to what I've read.  I've done multiple 1-whistle 5-bell resets with the 2 blast confirmations and still no love.   Another oddity I've noticed is that the volume changes significantly between resets.  One reset, the whistle will be very quite, next one will have it much louder.  Seems to alternate each reset.  Basically, the only sounds I'm getting are whistle and bell with sporadic volume changes between resets.  Really wishing I had a DCS setup so I could flash the engine!

 

Haven't started tracing the smoke element driver circuit yet.  When enabled, the fan pulses with the would-be chugs so at least that works.  Even though it's a turbine and should sound / steam like one, but I'm aware it's a pitfall of the Bantam version.

 

Here's the speaker cleaned up before it went back together:

 Now you know how Tom Z feels ,only multiply by a few hundred. These were a bad run of speaker magnets that show up later in their life.

 I would bet a lot of older smoke units get damaged from lack of fluid? Any charring of the wick? Are they getting hot? Are they charred themselves?

 this could be posted in the DCS column for better attention on helping you.

The mosfet driving the heating element isn't being switched.  Gunrunnerjohn provided me with an excellent diagram of all the FET locations on the PS2 5V board here - http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showpost.php?p=252697&postcount=2.  Really in need of a DCS setup to go any further.  Mods, please move this to another section if more applicable.  Thanks!

Ordered two different 16 ohm 2" speakers to try out and compare. I have high hopes for the first one. The 2nd was only $.85. Since I was already paying shipping figured I'd see how it performs.
http://www.parts-express.com/v...aker-16-ohm--292-540
http://www.parts-express.com/2...aker-16-ohm--289-131

Been taking down Christmas lights since working on the train this morning.  Took some shots of the box it was shipped in so you can see how the train just rattled its way here from Texas...  I probably should've just taken this up with the seller, but I've been waiting on this train for close to two weeks (understandable being around Christmas) after winning the auction and was anxious to get it up and running.

I bought a Bantam GS4 and it was a cable between the engine and tender that was the issue and that was the last thing I checked.  I could have saved a ton of time and effort.  

22VDC from the Positive voltage (normally purple wire) against the PCB Ground (normally blue Wire) (DC to DC)  is the correct value.  I don't know the duty cycle, but it is variable and will approximate about 6V.  The Smoke POT is adjusted to full on for conventional operations?

 

Take a continuity meter with both shells off and the harness plugged in and test continuity from the brown wire at the 4 pin connector to the brown lead at the smoke element. Should be 0 ohms.  If it is and the smoke pot or switch is on, there should be 22VDC when track voltage is 18VAC drom the purple wire at the heating element, measured against the blue PCB Ground.

 

If so, with DCS do a factory reset.  If conventional only, do a feature reset with 1W and 5B in sequence.  Takes some time getting use to the sequence.  You will get two whistle toot confirming the reset.  If at that point you don't have smoke or a hot element, you can try changing the FET.  The FET controls the return to PCB ground.   G

I'm pretty sure the FET is okay as the average output to the heating element (.8V) correlated to the gate duty cycle (4%).  Seems to be a firmware issue.  Unfortunately, I don't have a DCS system or know anyone who does.  I have done multiple conventional resets and gotten the confirmations, but both issues still remained.    Continuity through board and harness checked out fine and 22VDC present on the heating element.  This Bantam S2 only has the smoke switch and volume pot, with the PS2 board located in the boiler.  

 

I've seen other posts which say a conventional reset won't do everything that a DCS reset can.  Is this true?  Is there anyway to do a lower level reset, like some pins I can jumper or a test port somewhere on the board? Or anyway to manually flash the board? I'm just not ready to plop down ~$275 for a DCS setup when I don't even have a layout yet.  The port along the bottom of the flash memory looks rather interesting.  Any idea what its for? Appreciate your help on this GGG.

 

No on the ports.  I am sure for manufacture testing and Flashing the DSP.  You need DCS to reload the sound file.  You can see if someone is near you.  Anyone can do a DCS reset easily (how about a LHS), and you can reload the soundfile in about 6-10 minutes.  Frankly, I have not seen and issue like this that wasn't hardware related if a factory reset doesn't work.  Of course the 5V are older and less reliable and you do see odd things with them at end of life.  G

I was afraid of that.  Unfortunately we don't have any decent hobby shops down here that cater to trains, much less O gauge.  I did find a local club however, Charleston Area Model Railroad Club and will try to get down and chat with them.  Again, appreciate all your help on this.

thanks!

-shelby