No Neutral or Reverse on MTH PS-2 Engine

You guys will have to explain to me how something 10-15 years old is almost brand new. ……how can something over a decade old be brand new?

Pat

Is this your only PS2/3 engine? Do others operate as they should?

No this is not my only PS-2 i have about 5 other engines and they all work ok

the engine was in the original box, in a storage bin and only used 1 or 2 times during christmas finally retired and have the time to build a Layout

@pphegena posted:

the engine was in the original box, in a storage bin and only used 1 or 2 times during christmas finally retired and have the time to build a Layout

Sounds like either the relay on the PS2 board is not making contact to trip the next cycle, or the transformer you’re using won’t do a complete enough drop out to make this particular locomotive cycle,…….either way, unfortunately, Father Time don’t care if it’s in a box, in a vault, stored in a bunker…….a decade is a decade, ….without getting into the nuts & bolts of the board, I’d try cycle the sequences almost in a rapid secession in hopes the relay that triggers F/N/R will make contact again and work for you,……at this point, whatcha got to lose?..

Pat.

It may be locked in forward.  Turn off the smoke unit, power it up so it’s moving and lower the voltage as low as it will go while still moving and press the horn button followed by the bell button 3 times about 1/2 second apart.  You must get two horn blasts, if successful.  May take several attempts.

A conventinal reset might be worth a try here? One horn/whistle and five bells. If it's successful you will get a confirmation of two horn/whistle blasts at the end. It's about 1/2 second intervals between each the horn/bell activation. Might take a bit of practice to get the timing down correctly for a successful reset.

I'm a slow typer... I see Jon G beat me to it here.

Underline “several attempts”.  When I did one of these horn/bell button resets on a PS2 the other day, it was probably six or more attempts before I managed to get it just right and the two whistle blasts happened.  Moral of this: don’t give up, it will work in all likelihood [unless you have a dead PS2 board :-( ].  Someone’s good comment on another thread was to look for absolutely zero amp draw when you power the test track (of course you’re doing all of this on a test track with reliable signal ) as a sign your board is dead and won’t reset.  Bad part of this is uncertainty whether you’re not getting the half second press, half second wait times right or it’s dead.  Just have to try plenty of times before concluding it won’t work.

Here's one place the Z-4000 transformer comes in handy, it has "macro" commands to do a lot of these functions.

I have a Z-4000 also but its not hooked up to this track

@pphegena posted:

I have a Z-4000 also but its not hooked up to this track

Easy enough, set the engine on the track it is hooked up to, …….

Pat

@rtr12 posted:

A conventinal reset might be worth a try here? One horn/whistle and five bells. If it's successful you will get a confirmation of two horn/whistle blasts at the end. It's about 1/2 second intervals between each the horn/bell activation. Might take a bit of practice to get the timing down correctly for a successful reset.

I'm a slow typer... I see Jon G beat me to it here.

Conventional reset only works in neutral.  You have to unlock the direction first, and then you can do conventional reset while in neutral.

The Z4000 macros only work for PS1

Still looking for info on Z4000 macros, but found this video simplifying the horn/bell feature reset. Seems MTH really means “less than half a second” for presses and pauses. Quick is good. Less than a minute YouTube video

MTH PS2 PS3 conventional factory reset using z 4000 and z 750 transformers

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RGt6LvTHQJ4

@cnwdon posted:

Still looking for info on Z4000 macros, but found this video simplifying the horn/bell feature reset. Seems MTH really means “less than half a second” for presses and pauses. Quick is good. Less than a minute YouTube video

MTH PS2 PS3 conventional factory reset using z 4000 and z 750 transformers

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RGt6LvTHQJ4

@Jon G posted:

Conventional reset only works in neutral.  You have to unlock the direction first, and then you can do conventional reset while in neutral.

The Z4000 macros only work for PS1

Thanks for the clarification, Jon.  I've never actually done one of these resets, only read about them here and didn't realize it could only be done from neutral. Also, rereading your post above, I see you suggested a different command (only 3 bells) which I didn't catch earlier. 

I learn something every time I get on this forum!

As an alternative if you're using a TPC or Legacy PowerMaster to power the track for conventional operation of PS-2's you can use their "Fast Horn" and "Fast Bell" functions to walk through the MTH horn and bell button pushes:

Mike

So

it sound like i have to try a Default Reset that has to be done in Neutral, but i can not get the engine into Neutral when i push the direction buttton to put it in Neutral the engine stops but when i release the direction button it continues going in foward.

Regards

Prentice

@pphegena posted:

So

it sound like i have to try a Default Reset that has to be done in Neutral, but i can not get the engine into Neutral when i push the direction buttton to put it in Neutral the engine stops but when i release the direction button it continues going in foward.

Regards

Prentice

If you have a loop of track set up, try simply letting it run for a minute or so and give the BCR a chance to rev up, ……or if you have a set of test rollers, you could just let it run on the rollers, ……again, what do you have to lose? …..once the BCR is sufficiently boosted up, then try the reverse button, …..I’d still try rapid clicks of the direction button if that fails, ….

Pat

@Jon G posted:

It may be locked in forward.  Turn off the smoke unit, power it up so it’s moving and lower the voltage as low as it will go while still moving and press the horn button followed by the bell button 3 times about 1/2 second apart.  You must get two horn blasts, if successful.  May take several attempts.

Did you try this?

Yes i did try this but never got the 2 horn blasts

Prentice,

You haven’t said what the amp reading is on your Z4000 (better yet with a separate test digital ammeter between one lead and the track if you have it).  If using Z4000 amp reading, look for zero difference between the baseline reading with nothing on powered track and the amp reading with loco on powered track.  If it’s truly zero with track powered at 18+volts, you can conclude the board is dead in the loco and know you need to deal with that.