Open discussion of PS3

GHD,

   There are some good upgrades in the P3 Engines also, the built in BCR is one of them, I have to admit I own no P3 engines right now, my P2's run perfectly and I was unwilling to purchase the P3 because of some of the problems, I am reading about.  However knowing MTH they will be worked out with some kind of up grade, in the near future.  Waiting to see what the P4 will be like.

PCRR/Dave

 

 Most of my PS3 engines run perfectly. I did run into some that missed the watchdog signal. It seemed to be in a certain release time frame. Any of their engines will miss the watchdog under the right circumstances. Too many engines on powered track on one tiu channel for example, seems to cause this issue. A Lionel engine or other powered cars with caps on the same block without a choke will also cause it to occur.

 I just got a PS3 Dreyfuss that also is perfect. I believe there's extra stuff happening that gets attributed to PS3 no matter what the cause. The plastic end wireless drawbars for example. Mine work perfectly. I imaging there has to be some defective ones made. I personally believe that they are mostly failing from mis-handling more than anything. I leave mine connected most of the time. Our grandkids broke one from playing tug-of-war over who's turn it was at the controls.

 If you want to discuss the flaws, you should also discuss how to fix each. MTH has made corrections to the production runs. Removing the DCC switch on Railking was a decision they made.

Here's two PS3's in front with a PS2 connected. It was posted here that they didn't get along. I never understood why the mis-information spread so easily. It caused several buyers to run away scared.

I have 14 PS3 engines and really no problems. I do have one that is two years old that has recently developed a ditch light problem, but I doubt if this is PS3 specific. Other than that they all work just fine, no problems. Maybe I am just lucky? 

 

Wiring my current layout following Barry's guide lines as closely as possible has eliminated what few minor problems I did have early on with temporary layouts. Those problems affected PS2 engines as well and were the 'Engine Not On Track', 'Engine Not Found' etc. errors, usually from poor signal or in my case most likely from having just one continuous loop and no blocks so the signal was over running itself. I did not think this would make a difference on these small layouts, but correctly wiring my permanent layout has apparently proved me wrong there.

Only issue out of 2 engines have been build quality. First engine the cab lighting wiring fell out and shorted.out the beacon light in the gears of the truck. Required board replacement. Second was the insulator for the electro coupler on the tender was installed backwards and the coupler shorted to the axle on lashup when firing the rear.coupler. That required bard replacement. Neither was.fault with PS3.