PS2 Diesel Upgrade

Use 18 volts.  Try it with the battery that came in the kit.  Are you saying you did not put in a sound file yet?

That 's correct, Marty - simply 'test'  no sound file.  Had an interesting thing happen when I ran it the full length of the test track - about 6 ft.  The engine would NOT go out of forward or reverse, and even accelerated.  Had to repeatedly hit the dir button to get it to stop.  Looks like a classic case of tach reader problem.  Will replace the tach reader tomorrow.  The flywheels are 27.7mm and both motors run smooth.  I lubricate  thoroughly both motors and TEST run them with DC power prior to all installations.

Will update tomorrow.

bruce

Bruce, please keep us posted.  Whenever someone has an issue like this, it is great when they can share the end results.

First, upload a sound file and see if that changes the behavior.

Marty - changed to original battery (3v)  set 18 VAC on the Z-4000.  Pushed direction button, both forward and reverse - same thing.  Engine stopped, hesitated in same direction then stopped.  No different than before.

John - uploaded sound file, 3v w/no flash since this is PS2.  Used 12VDC power to the TIU, Fixed 1, just as Jason taught us.  File uploaded with no difficulty and the locomotive started up.  Shut down.   Switched power to AC on the Z-4000 and got set to run in DCS mode.  Start up - fine, couplers fired, sounds and lites worked.  I knew the smoke unit worked from being powered in the 'test' mode.  Gently started the locomotive in motion - forward - NO PROBLEM.  Ran in reverse - NO PROBLEM.    Ran for several minutes at varying speeds - great!

My guess is some kind of a glitch that was non-consequential in the desired result.  Thanks - Marty, John.  Let's mark this as an occurrence with no lasting problems.  I hope this experience can be useful to other techs and we learn from this incident.

Bruce

Sounds like something was corrupt in the "test" file they load at MTH.  Glad it was an easy fix.

Test file for PS-2 is not meant to run engine with.  G

Did not intend to run with the test file.  Simply to check direction control.

Which it did successfully  Just will not have the cruise motion expected of a full sound file. G