PS3 Super Cap not Charging

Well, the SuperCaps are easy to recognize, they're the large white caps shown here.  This is the steam tender board.

Thanks John. I see then I may be replacing 2. Wish they connected with a plug. Had a BCR go bad one time, and it was easy to just swap it out.

Dave,

It is a very easy solder job.  The diesel board is quite different though.

Dave

Same solder effort on either board.  But before replacing, just reflow and add some solder to the 4 joints.  More than likely one is cracked/open and that is the issue.  G

Found one of the white super caps did have a lead broken loose from the circuit board.  Just wiggling them a bit showed the movement of the loose one. Turned the board upside down and carefully re-soldered it. I was afraid to mess with the others for fear of over heating something on the board. The caps look like they were bent over buy someone to prevent the wiring from getting down between the leads.  I know MTH recommends doing this because of the wiring causing signal issues, but I believe the leads should be held with insulated tweezers so that the bend occurs above the circuit board.  I'm sure that is probably when the break occurred.  Its working fine now except for the fact that its starting up on its own when power is supplied to the track, only after its been sitting for 5 minutes or longer. Otherwise it will start with the remote like it should. I tried a feature reset, factory reset, and conventional reset.  Also deleted the engine that I had in the #1 position on my remote and added it there. None of that worked. Still starts up, if left without power for awhile. Are the caps supposed to hold a charge til the next time it is used? There is also an extra yellow plug with a blue and purple wire attached. What is that used for? Thanks all for getting me through this far. If anyone knows of a tread that deals with this start up issue, it may be easier to just send me there.

It should not start on it's own with a DCS signal on the track no matter how long you leave it.  The caps will self-discharge, but you should be able to start up properly every time.  You may notice a lower volume until the caps get at least a partial charge.

I timed it to see how long it has to sit without track power before it will miss the watch dog signal. It's more like 1 1/2 minutes. If I apply power to the track anytime before that, it will not start by itself and works normally using the DCS remote. I will do a search of treads to see if this has ever been covered.

The behavior you're experiencing is the opposite of what should happen.  That is, if the engine is running under DCS and you remove track power for ~90 seconds or less and reapply, the model should resume sounds, lights, etc., since the board really hasn't shut down yet.  After say, 2 minutes, when you reapply power (and DCS signals) the engine should remain quiet.

I suspect there is something about how you are applying power and/or issue with the TIU.  Essentially, when you first apply power, the watchdog isn't being sent.  Then, you hit "start up" which puts the engine in cmd mode.  I suggest looking for issues there.  Try powering the engine via fixed 1 with the only connections to the TIU being fixed one in and out.  After the caps dissipate (~2 min) and you apply fresh power through fixed 1 of the TIU, the engine should see the watchdog and come up quiet and dark in command mode.

Burned up DPDT dcc/dcs switch?

I had a similar though opposite type of problem with a brand-new PS3 PCC car, right out of the box.

In my case, the PCC would start up fine, run fine and, if powered off and then on again after a few seconds, would once again wait, dark and silent, for a Startup command then and go into DCS mode as expected.

It would continue to perform exactly as expected if powered off and then powered back on again after about 2 minutes.

If powered off and then on again after more than 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes, it would come up dark and silent when power was turned on, as it should. However, it would not be found by the remote when a Startup command was issued.

If then powered off for two minutes, it would then work fine again.

The PS3 board was replaced under warranty and the PCC has been a flawless performer ever since.