PS2 runs in conventional; PS3 doesn’t?

Try an engine reset on the PS3s.  If you have DCS, it's in the menu.

If you don't, you have to do a series of horn and bell blasts.  It's tricky at first, but once you get the pattern and rhythm you'll be a pro.

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

Here’s the situation. I have attempted to run three different PS3 engines on a simple oval of Realtrax using a Z500 transformer. All 3 PS3 engines start up, but they will not respond to throttle, lowering and raising, nor will they respond to direction button pushes. They just sit there, the horn blows, the bell rings and engine noise is heard, but no movement.  I’ve tried 1 PS2 and it does everything including moving upon demand. I haven’t encountered this before any ideas? Thanks.

100% correct. For whatever reason certain PS3 engines and their respective firmware in the engine (AKA chain files) has a bug or flaw, where the simple act of adding that engine to a DCS system can disable conventional operation.

It's not supposed to happen, that's not how PS3 is supposed to work, but again, while rare, certain engines and their firmware can b affected by this. You might have 20 engines no problem that all work as expected in both DCS and conventional and 1-2 in a fleet that do not.

The fix is resetting to defaults clears this condition but it can be annoying when you get caught up in it. This is because typically- you are attempting to run conventional at a track or location without DCS and maybe even a transformer that has trouble making the short timed sequences needed to reset in conventional.

FWIW, here is a semi recent discussion on basically the exact same issue.

https://ogrforum.com/...c/103495993914116123

And even within the above topic, we referenced a previous discussion https://ogrforum.com/...conventional-layouts

Thanks, Vernon. I didn’t search for this and I see I’m not the first to describe it.  This defect has not been corrected, as 2/3 PS3 engines I ran are very new arrivals. Disappointing that it’s gone on since the advent of PS3. Maybe an ardent tinkerer could fix this?

@Ron045 posted:

Try an engine reset on the PS3s.  If you have DCS, it's in the menu.

If you don't, you have to do a series of horn and bell blasts.  It's tricky at first, but once you get the pattern and rhythm you'll be a pro.

Thanks Ron. Will a feature reset do the trick? Think it needs a full factory reset, needing dcs, which returns it to it’s baseline to run in conventional.

yes conventional reset will restore dcs providing there are no problems with super cap in ps3 board!

Alan

Thx, Alan.

Feature reset worked; no need for full DCS factory reset. Thanks, Ron and Alan and Vernon. PS - Ron - on that video, neither the Z4000, nor the Z750 reset got the confirmatory double horn blast!

Hi Mark,

I have a a few PS3 engines do this exact thing and instead of a feature reset, mine were locked in neutral (and one was locked in forward!). After unlocking them, they work well. Now oddly enough, a factory reset would also do the trick but like Vernon said, as soon as I add it back to the remote they get locked up again.

That’s weird. How do you run them in command if they relock up? Or am I missing something?

The direction lock only applies to conventional mode. I should have been more clear on that.

Thx for clarifying.

I first experienced this a year or two ago; when I mentioned it to my club members, they said that either I was crazy or was doing something wrong - both could be true, but not this time.

I was able to remedy the situation by putting the engine on the track, starting it in DCS, shutting it down, deleting it from the engine list, and turning DCS off.  Didn't think of doing a feature reset since I hadn't made any custom settings.