On it's last legs?

When I was writing maintenance procedures for the Navy, MTBF, Infant Mortality, and a host of other projections were used to determine the life of electronics.

Mechanical parts by nature are going to wear out, electronics don't have as many moving parts, but the more parts (the more complex the system is) they have the more likely something will fail.

Individual parts do have a lifespan, but when put together to form a "system" it would seem those lifespans don't hold true all the time, especially once we place that engine in service.

If one of the repair gurus can shed some light on which component fails the most and we could find the data sheet on it, I would think that would give us a ballpark figure on the lifespan of a PS2 engine.

It sounds like your F3 has had a nice, long life.  Could it be nothing more than it needs a new battery?  Are the mechanical parts causing the failure?

I've seen capacitors inside military equipment leaking (much like a battery) crud around the ends.  The new Navy gear has become more and more "Plug & Play", the old days of taking a circuit card to the workbench are becoming a thing of the past.  Of course, if we had the Navy's budget we could have spares on hand and redundancy in our systems, but then again I don't think our model empires are as vital (WHAT?!?!?!) as those billion dollar boats we have floating around the world.

We had an engine problem at an open house a couple of days ago.  There were a number of guests and I'm guessing some one parked the engine in Doppler mode. "D" with his remote and shut  the remote off.... Not really sure what happened next  but the engine had very weak sounds and just wasn't operating correctly.  A feature reset didn't help.

The fix was... turned the Doppler on and then off... whether  we used the  same remote or a different one I"m not sure but the engine is back to normal. This was an early 5 volt RS-3 and thought maybe the speaker was  going bad.. nope! not yet anyway.

SJC, those RTR F-3 were notorious for the problem that you described. That was something that came to light within a short time after they came out. Talking with my repair guy, he said there was nothing consistent in time frame that the problem popped up, but once it did, the only solution was to replace the board. If it occurred in warranty, MTH took care of it, but out of warranty, you were on the hook for it even though it was known problem. Mine went about 4 years before it happened Runs fine, goes silent, unresponsive, will only stop when power is shut off. Let it sit for a time, the board cools, and she runs again fin for a bit, then we repeat.

Having made it as long as you have before it happened was good luck!

I'm still in the military electronics business and frequently deal with the question of how long electronics will last. As Bob says, most parts individually should live millions of hours if used within limits. When put all together as a group one part may "stress" another part and reduce its lifetime. Given that you have had a long trouble free life with this engine up to now it could be that just a single component has gone bad but as Jim has stated most repairs these days are board level replacements.

I have a PS2 Switcher that I bought new with very few hours on it that just up and crapped out recently. No sound, no movement, nuthin. On another post it was pointed out this type of failure in early 5v PS2's is common. THAT is a design flaw and not wearout.

SJC,

Mine is about the same age as yours, just passenger sounds instead of freight. My grandson loves it because of being a multiple unit piece, so it gets lots of run time, too. Even though it has been happening for years, it doesn't seem to have gotten any worse. I've not heard of them giving out eventually. I figure if it has a problem it won't get better without replacement, but will it give out? I don't know. 

For now, given age, cost of board replacement, and real resale value, I'm living with it.

I first saw it occur at my LHS. They used one on their layout. Dummy me, said I had one, and it didn't do it. Maybe I was lucky. Within a couple months it started doing it. I should have kept quiet.

If you look at the board what revision is listed.  It is printed under the square rectifier.

The PS-2 5V went through a number of revisions.  The later versions have significantly different parts and locations of internal diodes and inductors.

I would turn volume off and run the engine.  Do you still loose control after a period of time?  If not, I would have the audio amp replaced.  G

It is not a 5v board. It has a 3v board and has a 3v BCR in it. I'm surprised to know this is a common issue as this is all news to me! I do appreciate the leads. I may just drop it off at my LHS to have it looked over in case it is a more minor issue than the board. 

Since letting it sit makes it work again, I suspect a heat failure.

Something is overheating and shutting down.

I would run it with the shell off.

If it fails, hold your hand near the boards and see what is hot.

If someone you know has a Temp measuring tool, use that.

The hot part is likely the failed part unless it is a Voltage regulator.

Those fail Very Hot, it will be obvious.

Replace the part that gets hot. If it's a Voltage regulator put a heat sink on it.

It is not a common issue to PS-2 3V boards.  I assumed 5V since they are the older and will act up at end of life.  I would swap the power supply between 2 engines and see if the problem moves with the Power Supply board.  That has the rectifier and 5V regulator on it.  If so that is an easy replacement.  If it stays with the original engine then the processor board is the issue.  Hard to locate a problem there since all the parts are SMD.   G