While trying to fix a smoke unit on a new MTH premier steam engine I accidentally pinched a wire on the some unit when I reassembled the engine. The strands in that wire did contact the metal shell -- presumably causing a short. I fixed the wire but now the engine still has a low hum when I power up the transformer and the DCS start up does not work the engine. I tried another engine and my DCS system is working fine. Any suggestions?
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Well, it certainly seems you cooked something. Let's start with the exact product number of the engine.
Premier E4 Steam PS 2.
Doesn't look like an MTH product number to me, they are in the format of 20-xxxx-x for Premier locomotives.
It's 20-3298-1. I appreciate your help.
That's what we wanted to know. It's a 3V board. Truthfully, I think my next step would be to put the board on the test set and see about it's health. I'm presuming you've checked it over visually to see if any other wires are compromised?
How much current is it drawing when you apply power?
It is only using .9 amps when I apply 12 volts. Didn't see any burned wires.
.9 amps is a lot for a 3V board set, something is very likely amiss on the board. You'll have to see if the board can be repaired.
Thanks, John. I looks like a very expensive error on my part. Time to take it in for service.
PS2 or PS3 doesn't take kindly to shorts to the chassis, that's very frequently a death sentence for the boards.
I suspected I may have accidentally killed it. That made for a depressing Sunday evening. This engine was brand new and I was just trying to get the smoke unit to work. After 8 times removing the smoke unit, I was careless on the last attempt putting it back together and pinched the wire. If the board is shot, perhaps I could upgrade it to PS 3. That is, even if the boards are even available. Yikes.
Good chance it is the audio amp, maybe part of battery circuit. If you keep applying power you will cook it, but if you only powered once or twice for a short period, it can be fixable. G
@GGG posted:Good chance it is the audio amp, maybe part of battery circuit. If you keep applying power you will cook it, but if you only powered once or twice for a short period, it can be fixable. G
Thanks for the insight. I hope you are right. I did disconnect the smoke unit immediately before trying it again. I took it into my LHS today and it's in good hands. He's got a hand full of PS3 boards that are likely accounted for but he thinks he may be able to get another if need be. Hopefully it doesn't need one. But since the engine is in mint (new) condition, and I got a great price on it, there is room to pay for a new board and labor if I need to. That would bring the engine up to MTH list price 2007 -- so that's not the end of the world. It's a very cool engine.
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