Ps1 f3 dead in the water?

Do what I'm doing with my NYC PS1 F3, upgrade to PS3 or you could go with ERR TMCC upgrade.   I wouldn't waste my time with that PS1 electronics.

Not to disregard what Gary has to say, but anyone have other ideas?

First thing you want to do is:  put on test track, by itself, and apply 12 VAC.

Wait approx. 5-10 minutes, what happens?

If nothing - try a feature 18 reset.

Could be the boards are locked in neutral.

If that does not work, use the reset chip and see what happens.

I agree - why get bent out of shape and insure $$$ cost of an upgrade when it might not be necessary.

I don't have a z 4000.  The engine isn't making any noise to indicate it is in reset mode, so I can't count dings and clanks. I  do have a full dcs system but haven't used it for my ps1 engines.  Is there a way to attempt a reset with the dcs?

Yep  It takes a little work but not that much... Set up a var channel in var mode. Then  select the TR and scroll up the voltage..  The PS-1 features should show up on the soft -keys.

Menu/ System/ DCS set up/  Most of the commands you need will be here. 

That's the general idea. I don't have a remote here at the moment.

 If you're using an aux power supply it's easier, now  all you  need is  full power to the var channel in . Var channel out to the track.

I;ve been luck so far with my PS-1 reset chip. Brought a couple back from death so far. 

I saw on your profile that you are from PA. I live in east central PA, two miles north of Cabela's, as a marker. I am an MTH ASC repair person, have PS-1 boards as replacement parts, and MTH at last check had Protosound sound chips available if needed. If you live far away, you could send the powered unit, and I could take a look at it. My email is in my profile. 

Dump the BCR and put in a fully charged MTH green battery.  Do a feature 18 reset and see what you have.

You are lucky to be near Luke.  Give him a go, he can help you.

Thanks for the reality check guys.  I don't have an extra green battery around but I can try a 9 volt just long enough to see if the engine has a heart beat.  I also have a reset chip some place.  I need to pop the top and try a few things as suggested before shipping it out.  

Luke I am actually pretty close to you, I recently moved to Manchester so you are a fairly short drive away

Well I popped the top, and it's a little tighter than I expected.

 I tried the reset chip and nothing happened.  While I had the reset chip in, I took a voltage meter out and found out I only had 16 volts. Not sure if being two volts low would prevent the reset chip from working.  I still had the bcr in at the time.

 I didn't take the bcr out yet as it looks like I have to take the electronics stack out to free it up. Since I have continuous help from a 3 yr old whenever I get near my trains, today was not a good day to try this surgery.

Forgot to put up the picture earlier 

What reset chip are you talking about?  MTH made a reset chip for the 3 clanks.  I hope you did not use that.

jhz563 posted:

 I didn't take the bcr out yet as it looks like I have to take the electronics stack out to free it up. Since I have continuous help from a 3 yr old whenever I get near my trains, today was not a good day to try this surgery.

The electronics stack does not need to be taken out.

Simply remove the two screws that hold the zig-zag brass bracket to the chassis. It's the heat sink bracket for a big transistor or voltage regulator that hangs down from the board.

 The screws are in the picture right in front of the battery connector.  Swivel the board stack away from the BCR. Around 20-30 degrees is enough. That will give you room to disconnect the BCR connector. Then the BCR can be wiggled out of the holder. Nothing has to be disconnected other than the BCR.

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

What reset chip are you talking about?  MTH made a reset chip for the 3 clanks.  I hope you did not use that.

I used the  one labeled "make ps". I tthought that was the only one there is.

J Z

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

What reset chip are you talking about?  MTH made a reset chip for the 3 clanks.  I hope you did not use that.

Marty. I usually use the "make PS" chip that MTH packaged along with a chip puller and a battery many years ago. Is there any reason not to?

My shipment of batteries and other parts came in to start a round of loco maintenance.  So far on this engine the new battery instead of the bcr seems to be working.  It only been charging for a couple hours so far, but motion and sound are back.

Thanks for the solid advice everyone.

Still have problems with this one. Haven't had a chance to work on this for a while, if the reset through dcs doesn't work tomorrow then it looks like it will be going out to Luke!