PS2 3 volt Upgrade from Donor RK NKP Berk ISSUES

Which board 5V or 3V?  Is red to center rail and black to outside rail?  G

 Red centre pick-up. I have added a pic of the donor engine power pickup. Perhaps I need to use just a test track and try again, without the layout, possible causing interference.

Al

 Update

 I have separated the TIU from my layout wiring and have it dedicated to a 30" test track. My TIU and remote are version 3.1 and I'm guessing I will need to upgrade them to reset this board.

    I did try to add the loco to the TIU but still says "Out of RF Range"

   Al

HELLO ALBERTSTRAINS.........

Do you have any plans for the RK Berkshire without the boards (after taking out the boards) ?

Tiffany

Does it run in conventional mode?

The engine adds to the remote and it sounds like it's already loaded. Are you trying to add it again to the same remote?

Joe's point is good.  Test in conventional to make sure it runs so we can eliminate a catastrophic hardware fault or wiring fault.  After that, I agree delete from remote and try to add again.  If no joy, upgrade so you can do a "Recover Engine".  Also, is this a 3V or 5V engine?  G

 I just finished testing in conventonal mode, and no luck. Dead in the water.

   Tiffany, no plans for the RK berk. It still has its motor,lol

Al

Al, you have now been asked twice about whether the board is 5-volt (uses 8.4 volt battery and has round charge port if it has one) or 3-volt (uses 2.4 volt battery and has a rectangular charge port.)  If you don't answer, you can't really be helped.  For the job you tackled, a complete gut of the donee is required to get DCS compatible parts into it.

 It is a 3v system. Battery charge is presently 2.6V

 I can only hear the relay switching when I cycle the voltage F-N-R-N

Al

Dead in the water in conventional is not a good sign.... But you mentioned you could hear the relay clicks.

 Did you delete the Berk first before trying to add  for a second time?    I guess your not quite   ready for the new sound file. Maybe the loader might recognize the engine??

 While the guts were still in the dodnor engine, I renamed as CNR 6218 on handheld, but after conversion, it would not "see" the loco. I deleted it off the handheld and tried to add again, but no go

 My previous experience in DCS upgrades was a number of years ago with 9v PS2 and never had this kind of issue..lol

 Al

I guess the question is... Where do you go from here? Try and getting it running in convention first ?

Unfortunately the recover engine feature is not available with 3.1.  A remote reset might give you a clean slate to try adding again but everything will be deleted.

Upgrade to version 5 which has the recover engine feature but in my opinion  but that's no guarantee  and probably will not fix the problem....

Maybe  pull all the board connections and plug in the ones that are essential to get the engine moving.

2 pin battery, motor leads... center rail / chassis common/ and tack reader plug.  

BTW a feature reset with version 5 now deletes the custom name....

I'd take the board set and put it in another known good working engine for a quick test.

Want to start over checking wiring, especially speaker and such. Any pinched or grounded wire can cause damage.  A tech can bench test the board, or do as Joe states with swapping to a know good engine.  The PS-2 3V upgrade instruction is a good guide on this.  G

Do note that no one has suggested trying a known good board in your newly converted engine.  That risks damaging a board.

Did you gut the wiring before installing the new board, and use the wiring from the Berk?  One cannot assume that bulbs, leds, markers, couplers, etc are compatible.  When I upgraded Williams and Weavers locos to PS2, the only wires I would leave in the loco were the wires between 2 motors (if 2-motored) and the power wires coming up from the pickups.

Checking a battery voltage with a voltmeter is almost useless if the battery is not under load at the time.

  I will consult with a Tech in town and see what we come up with.

Al