PS3 installers take note, not a happy camper with MTH right now

WOW, that's a double bummer!  No reason on the planet they should have steam files in those!  The wiring is low class, I'm going to check the kits I recently got before I plug them in!

WOW, really bad!  Looks like they went with a couple of colors for all the wires!  That means that the old way of identifying function by the wire color is all out the window!  Obviously, someone got lazy and decided that doing the harnesses the right way was just too hard.

Anything to cut a corner and quality I guess...

I work on Thomas built School Busses. Pretty much every  wire in the body is either white or tan. There is a 5 digit number stamped on each wire to identify. Tracking down a wire in a harness takes forever as well as a magnifying glass. Not like  the old days of multicolored hand fastened wiring on terminals. Everything now is just pre made harnesses with plugs.

Well, until this last shipment, the diesel kits had color coded wires and it made it easy to trace them out and know what they are.  Now we'll be counting tiny 1mm connector positions and hoping we don't screw up the count!

And that's not the only issues. For reasons unknown to me, just the speaker wires are wired with smaller 26 gauge wire. Just one teenie weenie little chaff and bare wire is exposed. Why would they go through the hassle of changing the wire gauge for just the speaker? And the wiring color changed too. It has always been yellow / white. Now it is brown / yellow. The plugs and sockets used to be color coded, Now they are all red. Take your pick of which red one. Also, although pre-wired the color code is off for the DCC/DCS switch is shown in the installation guide is black, on the harness it is gray.

I am a MTH supporter and fan and hope this is not a sign of things to come from the off-chute company that may happen when MTH closes. These recent kits are garbage.

I can't even believe what I'm reading when I think MTH can't get much worse the kit issue happens! what' will be next!

Alan

@Dave_C posted:

I work on Thomas built School Busses. Pretty much every  wire in the body is either white or tan. There is a 5 digit number stamped on each wire to identify. Tracking down a wire in a harness takes forever as well as a magnifying glass. Not like  the old days of multicolored hand fastened wiring on terminals. Everything now is just pre made harnesses with plugs.

Try aircraft wiring when all the wiring is one color.  But they are all marked every six inches if the markings are not worn off.

I checked my order an each kit is wired just as Chuck said. I always quadruple check the wires with the pin position anyway when installing but the right color of wire was also a nice confidence booster.  I wonder if MTH will replace the harness with the correct wiring if requested...

@Dave_C posted:

I work on Thomas built School Busses. Pretty much every  wire in the body is either white or tan. There is a 5 digit number stamped on each wire to identify. Tracking down a wire in a harness takes forever as well as a magnifying glass. Not like  the old days of multicolored hand fastened wiring on terminals. Everything now is just pre made harnesses with plugs.

I used to work on Thomas busses too!....small world!....retired when the C2 came along!....y’all have fun with all that multiplex jazz!....

Pat

Smart move Pat. I miss the Bluebirds from the early 2,000’s. Simple old school wiring with every switch just carried voltage. Switched to Thomas when the C2’s came out. Electrical nightmares with all the digital signals just to get a simple thing to work.

Sounds to me that QC went in the crapper after the announcements of MTH shutting down. Perhaps some disgruntled factory workers gonna get laid off ?

I have seen engines come in for warranty repair where the color codes were not followed.  I follow the pinout diagram when checking terminations.

I agree with Jon. Wire colors are nice but I never trust them and always verify which pin position corresponds to the wire it plugs into and the function it provides. I've seen mismatched wire colors on pretty much every manufactures products at some point.

Never assume, always verify.

Have to do that from now on. But up to this point the color codes have always been reliable to fallow. Especially if you fallow the verbiage in the installation manual. It would have been nice if every LED didn't have a red plug on them. And every LED socket wasn't red also.

Chuck, thanks for posting this.  I have not used one of my kits yet.  I have always followed the diagram, as I removed un-need connections, but the requirement to be double careful is really raised.  The plug connectors is bad too. G

I still have my grave reservations about what's going to happen to MTH electronics in the future, this might just be the tip of the iceberg!    Now is not the time to shake the confidence of the buying public...

GRJ - I guess your 'sliding' scale of fees (ie. for a PS 3 installation) will have to be amended accordingly eh John?  

It ain't gonna' slide down, I can tell you that!

Oh my!

@David Minarik posted:

Oh my!

Although I'm assuming you'll continue to fiddle with the electronics for your own stuff, it sure looks like your timing for closing the shop was perfect!

@Chuck Sartor posted:

Also, although pre-wired the color code is off for the DCC/DCS switch is shown in the installation guide is black, on the harness it is gray.

Locomotives are leaving the factory with this same issue.  Having a couple Rail King PS-3 locomotives that I needed to run in DCC on my layout, and when I opened them up, there was no black wire, just several gray.  I have been lucky 2 out of 2 times by sniping the correct gray wire.  But I also count the connector terminals (2+ times to be sure.) to double check.

Oh that's bad. You'll have to trace every wire to figure out what it does. It'll be a time consuming PITA... The last few PS3 steam kits I used the purple wire in the boiler harness changed to red. That was a "eh whatever" change. The change to the PS3 diesel kit is a joke.

If I can not get correct 40 pin wire harness I am going to put  small dab of the correct color on each 2 pin connector shell and replace the speaker wires.  Have to be very careful in what wire and pin goes where.

Bruce