I am looking at a couple of new MTH Railking locomotives made in 2017. They both have PS 3.0. I can't see anywhere or whether they will run in conventional mode. Does anyone know if they will?
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They will, but PS3 uses a super-capacitor instead of a battery for powering the electronics through dirty track and dead-spots. This means they'll stop very suddenly despite having a flywheel if you just press the direction button on your transformer. If you're looking to run MTH in conventional mode with smooth stops, later-model PS2 is the way to go.
Dan, do you mean at shutdown, or do they stop for no reason? I am currently running PS-2
and PS-1 locos that run fine. They have BCR's and the sound shuts down very quickly after power-down.
Bob Severin posted:Dan, do you mean at shutdown, or do they stop for no reason? I am currently running PS-2
and PS-1 locos that run fine. They have BCR's and the sound shuts down very quickly after power-down.
Sorry, what I meant was that if you press the direction button to stop the engine while it is moving, it will stop abruptly, not coast like the PS2 engines do to simulate the train's momentum.
PS3 does indeed run in conventional mode just fine. As Dan has pointed out, I wouldn't hit the direction button at speed as it stops pretty much instantly but at [slow] switching speeds one can stop and start by using the direction button. In conventional you first bring the throttle up and then wait while the supercaps charge. When you hear the diesel staring and then idle sound you are then in neutral and are ready to go by hitting the reverse button which puts the PS3 through the usual forward-neutral-reverse-neutral sequence. It is actually pretty smooth and slow speed performance is fantastic, even in conventional. It is obvious to me that even in conventional mode electronic motor speed control is being employed. There is no perceptible change in train speed even when rounding an O36 curve! And then for about $60 you can get a Remote Commander and run in DCS.
Pic of my new baby:
Lew
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Lew, you must tell me more about the remote commander, please. I have never heard of it.
Bob Severin posted:Lew, you must tell me more about the remote commander, please. I have never heard of it.
It's a good DCS primer. There are two things to keep in mind though; it will only control one train at a time, and since you run multiple MTH PS2 engines (presumably) you will have to electrically isolate any engines you don't want to operate at the same time. This is because the Remote Commander controls each engine in DCS, but unlike DCS, it keeps the engine at its factory default electronic address of 1, which can't be altered without the full system. Also, the Remote Commander can't run your PS1 (which are conventional locos) engines like the full system can, but in my opinion running conventional engines with the full system (unless it's the WiFi app) is clumsy anyway.
Thanks Dan, I found a thread here and have been reading about it. It seems pretty good, I'm not sure if my PS-2 locos would need to be reset. They have only been run in conventional mode. I may try one just to see. I am not sure what Gunrunner John was talking doubt when he said he runs it in a "Passive Mode" although.
Remote commander is obsolete. Bypass that and get the dcs explorer which connects via bluetooth with more capabilities and can operate up to 3 locos. It's like dcs light.
Remote Commander is probably not a good fit for you, Bob, as you run multiple engines. It works well for me because switching pike.
Well, actually The Royal Gorge makes a daily run and it is Lionel conventional so I use a Z1000 controller for it and just set the throttle at high when I want to run DCS. The passenger siding is toggle-switched as is the return loop where the SW1500 and it's consist hide while the Royal Gorge puts in it's appearance.
Lew
Lew,
Well, I don't run more than one train on a given track at a time. I have seven mainlines that are powered separately. I use two Z4000's and two ZWL's got power everything. I used to have a DCS system and ran a bunch of PS-2 locos. but I found it tedious and sold everything off. I ran Lionchief Plus for awhile, but started buying PS-1 and PS-2 locos again because I just like them better. I have a couple of PS-3 locos in mind and I thought this might be an alternative to strictly conventional operation (again).
pittsburghrailfan posted:They will, but PS3 uses a super-capacitor instead of a battery for powering the electronics through dirty track and dead-spots. This means they'll stop very suddenly despite having a flywheel if you just press the direction button on your transformer. If you're looking to run MTH in conventional mode with smooth stops, later-model PS2 is the way to go.
FYI, the battery or supercap do NOTHING to power the motor, it just keeps the electronics alive during brief power interruptions.
There IS a problem with some PS/3 models where they will stop suddenly in conventional mode with power interrupts, but it's not the fault of the supercap. In truth, a satisfactory explanation has yet to be presented for why, but it appears that it's an electronic and/or software issue that causes the motor drivers to dynamically brake when power is interrupted by creating a low impedance current path between the motor connections.
GRJ, you mentioned (in another thread) running the remote commander in a passive mode. Can you explain?
Bob Severin posted:
Lew,
Well, I don't run more than one train on a given track at a time. I have seven mainlines that are powered separately. I use two Z4000's and two ZWL's got power everything. I used to have a DCS system and ran a bunch of PS-2 locos. but I found it tedious and sold everything off. I ran Lionchief Plus for awhile, but started buying PS-1 and PS-2 locos again because I just like them better. I have a couple of PS-3 locos in mind and I thought this might be an alternative to strictly conventional operation (again).
Sure, with an electrically isolated loop you could run a train with Remote Commander and you could switch out between any new PS3 and your present PS2 as long as the PS2 is the newer 3v version and it is set at factory default.
Lew
Lew, well, that is a new fly in the ointment. All My PS-2 locos are older with the 9 volt look-alike BCR.
Bob Severin posted:GRJ, you mentioned (in another thread) running the remote commander in a passive mode. Can you explain?
Simple, just connect it to the track that is separately powered by your favorite transformer, and don't connect anything to the input power barrel jack.
It helps to add a 22uh choke in series with the transformer connection to the track, but it's not usually necessary.
Bob Severin posted:Lew, well, that is a new fly in the ointment. All My PS-2 locos are older with the 9 volt look-alike BCR.
5V locomotives run fine with the DCS Remote Commander, they just have to be factory reset before they'll be recognized by the DCS-RC.
Thanks John, for both comments. Valuable information for me.
gunrunnerjohn posted:Bob Severin posted:Lew, well, that is a new fly in the ointment. All My PS-2 locos are older with the 9 volt look-alike BCR.
5V locomotives run fine with the DCS Remote Commander, they just have to be factory reset before they'll be recognized by the DCS-RC.
Heh. Thanks, GRJ for the correction. It's hard enough to keep info on the interwebs accurate without an old fart mixing up two or three information threads (5V PS2 prone to board failure vs Remote Commander not working with PS1 vs Remote Commander able to reset later PS3 only).
Lew
gunrunnerjohn posted:Bob Severin posted:Lew, well, that is a new fly in the ointment. All My PS-2 locos are older with the 9 volt look-alike BCR.
5V locomotives run fine with the DCS Remote Commander, they just have to be factory reset before they'll be recognized by the DCS-RC.
So the Remote Commander WILL run 5v PS2 locomotives? I have 2 of them, and if they worked with the Remote Commander, then this might be a really good option for my layout.
Sure, it'll run any DCS locomotive. Again, just do a factory reset on them, that applies to any PS/2 pr PS/3 locomotive used with the DCS-RC. Only the more recent PS/3 from around 2016 or later are capable of actually being reset by the DCS-RC, earlier units need the factory reset to be performed using a full DCS system.
