MTH steam engine

Maybe try this one first since there are no sounds to do a battery test.(how long do sounds last after power is removed)

Menu/ Advanced/ reset engine/ Feature reset/ select engine.. any luck?

I believe this is a 2/3 rail engine were the outside rail connection is on the engine's drivers left side and tender  on the right side. so maybe add a freight  car or wire both outside rails together.  

Phil,

The engine has a 3 volt battery and the charger you have should work fine with it. Charge the battery overnight before attempting to restore sounds, as described below.

If you operate with DCS,use: Menu/Advanced/Reset Engine Feature Reset to bring sounds back.

If you operate conventionally, use 1 whistle press followed by 5 bell presses to do a transformer reset. Use 1/2 second presses with 1/2 second passes in-between. If successful, you should get 2 whistle toots.

Regarding the lurching, check to see if a traction tire has come off and is binding. Does this happen at all speeds or just when going below a few miles per hour?

I am using it in conventional right now with an MTH Z-1000 transformer. It's sister engine the Reading Lines T-1 cab 2124 (MTH # 20-3130-1) runs great and has no issues. 

The lurching happens when trying to go forward, it runs at a decent speed then lurches or tries to slow down dramatically(a whole lot) and then takes off again. I will check the traction tires as i just bought some new ones for my other T-1 engine.

Thanks for the information Barry.

Lee Fritz

Gregg posted:

Maybe try this one first since there are no sounds to do a battery test.(how long do sounds last after power is removed)

Menu/ Advanced/ reset engine/ Feature reset/ select engine.. any luck?

I believe this is a 2/3 rail engine were the outside rail connection is on the engine's drivers left side and tender  on the right side. so maybe add a freight  car or wire both outside rails together.  

There is NO sounds at all! Not even when powering up and definitely no sound at shut down, it just goes forward when power is applied. I have not tried neutral or reverse yet with it.

Lee Fritz

I'd stop trying to run it until you sort this out.  I just got done with a repair that started with no smoke due to a shorted motor.  The guy kept running it until it cooked the tether, mux board, PS2 boards, and blew all the lights in the locomotive!  It would have been a cheap repair before all the other stuff got cooked...

Thanks for the advice gunrunnerjohn. FYI; I have the tender on the charger now. Going to inspect the engine and traction tires too.

Lee Fritz

Check the smoke motor, preferably with a bench supply unplugged from the board.  If it draws more than 50-60ma, replace it.  The fan motor is one Achilles Heel of PS/2, a shorted motor can do a lot of damage in a hurry!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Check the smoke motor, preferably with a bench supply unplugged from the board.  If it draws more than 50-60ma, replace it.  The fan motor is one Achilles Heel of PS/2, a shorted motor can do a lot of damage in a hurry!

What voltage do I use with the smoke motor to check it? Is it AC or DC voltage to check it?

Lee Fritz

It's 5VDC, and they should run on around 2 volts if they're a good motor.  At 5VDC, they should not be drawing more than 50-60ma.  If you don't have a bench supply, three 1.5V batteries will do just fine.

Give Barry's suggestion a try ..... a conventional reset. , How long have you owned the engine? did it run OK before?    I see now you can't do a feature reset because you only  run conventional at the moment.

I wouldn't go taking things apart until trying the easier ones. conventional reset.

To see if it is the smoke fan, turn smoke off with switch.  If it runs fine the smoke fan is most likely culprit.  You can further test by unplugging smoke fan connector and turn smoke on.  If still good, fan was definitely the issue.  G

Traction tires are in good shape. I just charged the tender overnight so I will try it again, and will see about the smoke switch and fan.

I have the DCS TIU in a box right now as I am still in set-up mode, will have to dig out the TIU over the weekend and hook it up.

Lee Fritz

Battery should be fully charged as it was on charge for over 15 hours with the MTH wall charger.

Results are the same; lurches in either forward or reverse at low speed. Sounds are not fully functional, at least not like it's sister engine the 2102 by MTH. Did the reset that Barry Broskowitz mentioned and no success. Tried turning off the smoke unit with the switch on the tender(topside) and no change in performance.

Is it possible the battery is dead? Or might the circuit board have croaked on me? FYI; I bought this engine used, so I don't know that much about it.

If nothing else a road trip to Miami FL might be in order to have Ready To Roll look at it as they are an MTH authorized dealer and repair shop.

Lee Fritz

With PS2 in command mode, it should run without a battery.  Lurches in low speed sound like mechanical binding.  Obviously, the sound is a different issue, what exactly is "non functional" about them?  Is it distortion, volume, or missing sounds?

The sound is not always there; it don't have the chuffing or boiler sound or decreasing in speed sound. It's more like missing sounds. The tender makes a sound when it starts up but most of the sounds are missing, no steam sound. At close to full speed there is no increase or decrease in speed by the engine, no lurching.

I have tried it with the smoke unit turned off, the switch is on the top side of the tender and I used a Phillips screwdriver and turned it to off and it made no difference.

Lee Fritz

Is it possible the battery is dead? Or might the circuit board have croaked on me? FYI; I bought this engine used, so I don't know that much about it.

If you can get any sound at all try this battery test........ Start up the engine until you get some type of sound.  Turn off track power .   The sound should  last at least 6 or 7 seconds .  If the sound immediately shuts off the battery is pooched. ( BO ) If the battery is White chuck it and get a new one.

Just to eliminate one problem, take a 5 mm socket and make sure all of the main rod screws are tight. Don't crank them down, just finger tight and a nudge, as they are small. Another possibility is that the tether board in the loco has a broken solder joint, there are ten connections on the board, they are tough to describe; when you have the loco powered up on low voltage, try wiggling the tether plug when it is plugged into the loco, and see if anything changes. These boards aren't expensive, but replacing them is a job for someone with no coffee nerves. Also, you could power up the loco and wiggle the tender tether itself and see if anything changes. Another not too tough job but it is sometimes like soldering spider webs. Keep us posted.

Lee,  I would take it to tech.  The range of issues, the fact this is used, can mean all sorts of issues.  Motion can be tether related, but sounds are tender related.  The more you try and run this the more likely to damage the PS-2 board and that will result in a more expensive repair.   G

GGG posted:

Lee,  I would take it to tech.  The range of issues, the fact this is used, can mean all sorts of issues.  Motion can be tether related, but sounds are tender related.  The more you try and run this the more likely to damage the PS-2 board and that will result in a more expensive repair.   G

I am going to take this engine to Ready To Roll in Miami FL as they are an MTH certified repair facility. I took my other MTH T-1 there and they said it was fine, just the battery needed charging.

This engine has the wired tether, so I hope that it don't have a break in one of it's wires.

Lee Fritz

A broken wire in the tether is one of the easier things to fix, there are worse things that can befall your locomotive.

Engine is fixed! Took it this morning to ready To Roll in north Miami(opa Locka) FL and Bill found a connector unplugged inside the engine. It had to do with the tach & chuff rate for the steam engine, connected it fully and re-tried the engine and everything works right. Could have come loose during shipping.

Once again thanks to Bill at Ready To Roll in Miami FL!

Lee Fritz