Problem with PS3 loco

At least you know it accelerates well! 

Seriously it sounds like you tach reader spacing to the tach tape is too wide or the tach tape has come off the flywheel. I would take it apart and check. 

 

Rod

The tach reader on PS-3 engines is not the same as PS-2, here is a photo of a flywheel removed from the motor.

 

How are you powering your DCS? You must use a separate power supply instead of the track 1 powering it, there was an article about this. Your engine could be missing the watchdog signal and reacting to full line voltage.

Ah, that's it, I'm using track 1 power, I'll plug in one of my Z500 bricks.

 

thanks Kevin, new learning curve, I guess......

 

interesting how the new tack reader and flywheel arrangement works, no more peeling, fading and dirty tack tapes!

 

Mike

Paul,

 

Is that the most common setup for PS3?  The ones I have seen still have the tach marks on the edge of the flywheel like PS2 with the reader mounted in a plastic holder on the side of the motor.

 

Dave

Kevin,

You must use a separate power supply instead of the track 1 powering it, there was an article about this.

What article?

 

That's completely untrue, besides making no sense at all.

Dave,

   I am not sure how many different ways MTH is doing the tach readers on their PS-3. The photo was one I took at the PS-3 training last September, however since MTH had already came out with several different models of PS-3 boards by that time, who knows how may different ways they are doing tach readers in the actual production models now. Maybe some one else that has been to the training in the past few months can chime in.

Paul, That reader is from an HO engine. They are pretty consistent between a diesel and a steam engine. The ones for O PS3 are pretty close to the same as a PS2 except they are larger in size. I don't have a pic of a new one but might be able to find one when I get home today.

The article was in OGR, Run256 April May 2012 page 27 by George Brown, MTH was contacted and advised it was best to upgrade software and use a dedicated power supply.

 

I have rev 3,2 and power it with a separate 18 volt supply and have no problems running my new PS3 diesel engine.

 

 

Kevin,

advised it was best to upgrade software and use a dedicated power supply.

That is not the same as your statement of:

You must use a separate power supply instead of the track 1 powering it

A much more likely participant in the problem is George's older DCS software, not the source of his TIU's power. All DCS releases prior to 4.00 had a watchdog signal that was only half a second in duration, whereas DCS 4.00 and later increased the watchdog signal to 5 seconds.

 

Further, TIUs are designed to be operated by providing power through either the Aux. Power port or through Fixed Channel #1 Input.

 

Regardless, George's engine did not come up in conventional mode. Rather, he stated that

...the engine powered up in a strange state that appeared to be a an irresolvable hybrid of conventional and command modes...

This would tend to indicate that the problem lay more in the combination of the engine itself plus the shorter duration of the watchdog signal, rather than the source of the TIUs power.

Barry,

I had read the article several months ago and what stuck in my mind was that you should use a separate power supply for the TIU. If it is not an issue, why did MTH advise it was best to use an eternal supply? in fact, i disconnected mine and tried starting my engine and it would not move forward, it took a few trys and it finally worked. I plugged in the supply and it worked every time (tried 5 times from a cold start), so there must be something to it. 

 

Mike,

 

Have you tried using an external supply to see if it helps? (it can't hurt!)

Kevin,

 why did MTH advise it was best to use an eternal supply

Because it simply is better to use a separate power supply with a TIU. However, that's true for a variety of reasons, all of which have nothing to do with your issue. Regardless, the better information that MTH provided was to upgrade the DCS software, which you most certainly should.

 

What you fail to understand is that the DCS software that you are using, 3.1 or 3.11 (3.2 was only a beta release), is ancient, quite buggy and has a very short (1/2 second) watchdog signal, and was never anticipated to operate PS3 engines. If there's an incompatibility, that's where I'd expect it to be. MTH's suggestion was to both upgrade the DCS software and also try the Aux. Power port, simply because those were things to try that could possibly improve the situation, not because a TIU must get its power from the Aux. Power port as opposed to Fixed Channel #1 to operate a PS3 engine.

in fact, i disconnected mine and tried starting my engine and it would not move forward, it took a few trys and it finally worked

No disrespect intended, however, perhaps whatever you were doing incorrectly initially, you changed to doing correctly. Only you know exactly what you did to get the engine to start up using the channel power. In any event, you changed the way the (ancient/buggy) DCS software managed the TIU's power.

 

Regardless, perhaps something you own is broken to some degree. If I had to choose between the TIU, the brand-new PS3 engine or the buggy 3.x software, my money would be on the software as the problem, which would also have been OGR's George Brown's problem, as well. Wouldn't you agree?

Mike,

 

Have you tried using an external supply to see if it helps? (it can't hurt!)

Regardless (again), Mike's situation is that his PS3 engine has a problem. Changing how he powers his TIU certainly isn't going to solve his problem.

Barry,

 

I don't have a problem, I was just trying to suggest something Mike could try. I went back to the way it was and all is fine. I probably should update the software, however, I have never seen a bug with it. I have a single AHU and everything works great. I have always been able to run all 15 of my engines without a hitch. You are right, it is version 3.1 that I have not 3.2 (typo).

 

Is there a list of known bugs?

 

It will not be easy to update, as I don't have the proper connections on my computer. Need to buy a s USB to RS 32 adapter.

Kevin,

 

DCS 3.1 had lots of issues hat were corrected in later releases, which also included a slew of new features. Click on the link below for a list of all of the changes to DCS from DCS 4.0 to present.

http://www.protosound2.com/service/30.htm

Barry,

 

I had no idea so much had changed/fixed, I will look into updating soon.

 

Thanks for the link.

Kevin,

Thanks for the link.

Glad that I could help.