mth shay no. 12 the bell dings once when powered up and once when power shut down engine won't run either

More than likely a battery problem but it's impossible to give better advice without the product #.

The engine is 20-3023-1 one the circuit vs it says 1996 QS.The battery has been changed,it is th Mth  Green battery and it works fine in another engine

Do you Run DCS or have a MTH z4000 transformer? if so try a factory reset. If you dont have DCS or a z4000 then find someone here on the forum that can help.

I have a Z4000, that is what I use

I don't have the infomation to do a reset.

The #12 Shay was one of the few Premier Protosounds 1 engines that was vulnerable to the "scrambled chip" problem. This was initially caused by a low or discharged battery. To restore the engine you will need an MTH Chip reset kit. It is MTH part # 50-1023 and it costs $29.95. It is still available from MTH and you can order it on their website. Your chip is not ruined it is only scrambled. With the reset kit you remove your original chip, put in the reset chip and then replace the reset chip with your original chip. Before you do these chip swaps you have to start with a fresh charged battery. It's easy to fix but you have to avoid static electricity.  I think the kit actually comes with a chip puller. The other Premier engines that had that issue were the first Big Boy, the Hudson and the Santa Fe and L&N F3 units. My Shay had the same issue and after I unscrambled the chip I inserted a BCR instead of the battery. Good Luck. 

Überstationmeister posted:

Way before DCS. Most likely, your transformer is incompatible with the PS1 board electronics. You need a "pure" sine wave transformer like a ZW. See manual (page 34). Note that the Z-500/750/1000 sometimes is not compatible, but the Z4000 is specifically designed to be compatible. If switching to an appropriate transformer does not fix it, the board is probably scrambled...

I would think Steve was probably referring of the ability of a TIU to send the Proto 1 reset command by altering the voltage , similar to the way the Z400 buttons will allow.

Of course if it's actually scrambled as others have suggested, then issuing the factory reset command won't help yet.

-Dave

Thanks for the input, sounds you hit the mail on the head.Where can I get a BCR? Is there a part number?

Adding a BCR instead of the usual battery is fine but it will not reset the scrambled chip. Get the reset kit and unscramble the engine, then replace the battery that comes with the reset kit with a BCR. You can order them them from J & W Electronics , the company that makes them. Their phone number is 717-417-2820. Nice folks to deal with.

Hold on here, everyone. One clang isn’t a scrambled chip. Three clangs is. Plenty of references on this forum in the past to the “three clangs of death.”

So, first things first.

Since this is an original Protosounds unit, you need to startup the engine at last than 10 volts to get it out of reset. So are you setting the voltage at, let’s say, 8 volts, pushing the direction button and then finally turning up the voltage?

Second, if you still are unable to run the engine, it’s possible the battery has an insufficient charge. So follow MTH charging procedures.

Third, try a factory reset. The manual is available online at MTH’s website. Here’s the link:

https://mthtrains.com/sites/de...ction/20st12911i.pdf

Here is the mth charger for 3 and 8.4 volt battery's charges 3 volt n 5 volt boards!

f:0" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.com/itm/MTH-D...wnh5cBMER:rk:11f:0

and chip reset kit also!

f:0" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.com/itm/MTH-R...SwUMBcACUa:rk:2f:0

also check out page 18 ,19,etc for reset procedure with other transformers 

https://mthtrains.com/sites/de...ction/20st12911i.pdf

2 possibilities here, It may only need a 'FIX' chip run through it. This special reset chip was not made available to the public, only MTH service stations received them. #2, The chip it's self could also need replacing, MTH has upgraded versions.