FIXED, PS2, No Sound

check the tether. Is it a 5 volt ps2??

Knowing whether 5V or 3V engine matters.  If board is in tender with speaker harness won't be the issue, so check speaker.  IF not speaker, needs and audio amp most likely.  G 

Are you operating conventionally or under DCS?

If conventionally, you can't know for sure  if the transformer reset worked and the engine does have a sound issue or if the reset did not work.

GGG & Joe, the electronics are all in the loco, so no tether. The instructions say the battery is a 2.4V, so I assume that is considered the 3V type.

Barry, I was running in command mode. Have not tried conventional to see if that makes a difference.

Steve

I recently ran into a strange problem with a ps2 steam engine, no sound and would not run on conventional at all, tried featured reset to no avail!

After many attempts at factory reset in conventional and dcs rest to factory setting still not working!

I tried something different!

I went threw normal start up on dcs remote, then powered down transformer and engine shut down, then tried power up conventional and all started to work perfectly, don't figure but it worked!

Alan Mancus

Note by me powering it down from transformer i forced the engine to save it's setting on power down,

What is the engine number?????  Where are you seeing the battery located at? As a rule, early PS2 steamers with a 5 volt board you may find the board located in the engine and the battery located in the tender.   Is this a low end set engine you have.  The engine information is important.  Where did you find the volume pot located??

It's a 400E Tinplate Steam Engine w/Proto-Sound 2.0

Thanks Steve.

You have an early PS2  3 volt board.  A step at a time.  Looking at your board, on the oposite end from the heat sink is a plug with 12 positions.  It is the largest plug on your PS2 board.  With it in front of you, count wires from right to left until you get pin 6 and pin 7.  One wire will be white and the other yellow.  These are the two wires that go to your speaker.  Take your continuity meter and pick the yellow wire and put one probe on it and the other on the yellow (+) wire on the speaker.  If you hjave continuity, move to the whire wire and do the same.  Let us know if you have continuity. 

One thing before you test for continuity, pull the 12 pin plug and reseat it then test for sound.  Did you test the battery.  If it original, it is done for.

Problem solved. Thanks to all for the pointers. Pulled the shell off, set the power chassis on the track and powered it up. Did the old fashioned wiggle test and found the issued at the two wire speaker connection. Narrowed it down to the white wire on the board side and gave it a little pull and the wire and sleeving came right off. Re soldered it and put on some new sleeving and all is well.

Steve

Good job Steve.  When you troubleshoot any problem, always ensure the plugs and wiring are where they should be and things that need to be connected to another component are connected.  Before jumping and saying it might be this or that, always check what I conversed about.  Many of todays trains  (both Lionel and MTH) come in for repair and what I mentioned is the issue.  You did a good job finding your issue.

Careful Marty because Steve might get used to doing the fancy electronics repairs! Now maybe he will tackle the PS2 board that did not work in the other loco.....

Starting to see a lot of cold solder joints on those connectors under the heat shrink. Sometimes they can be elusive.  G

George is correct.  The test of time is bringing the cold solder joints at us hot and heavy.  Your continuity meter is your best friend.  Start at one end with one probe and put the other probe at the other end.  If you have no continuity, chase the wire with your meter. 

A few days ago we had one on a Dreyfuss  steam locomotive owned by Barry.  With the tender plugged into the engine I had him put one probe in pin 6 of the 12 pin connector on the board located in the engine  and the other on the speaker.  No continuity.  He had continuity from the board to the 10 pin receiver on the back of the engine.  By touching the suspect pin where continuity was lost with a hot iron, the circuit was fixed and sound restored.  Like George states, these are showing up.

I had two repairs with this situation last week.