PS3 upgrade information.

That has not been talked about.

hi Marty

i have a 30-1172-1 proto 2 blue comet.

i bought it and it's DOA. from a seller, claims it was new in box and it looks it as well.

i have desoldered the 2 brds and found swelled caps and most of the caps are not near specs.

also the rectifier is ohming out to meg ohms.

if i were to upgrade it, i wish to go with the  original 5 volt ps2.

would it be cheaper to skip the original ps2 and go to the ps3 set up?

all i want to do it get the blue comet back to where it should be right out of the box or better.

whom can i get the brds from and is it easy enough to convert back to original or ps3?

please let me know as i have it on my bench now and thinking about trying new caps and see what happens, i did de-solder the 2 brds and plan to put them back together.

please let me know 

thank you for all you have done.

ron

would like to add that the eninge did nothing with or without the tender it was soundless and motionless.

Is it safe to assume that most tech will have kits available by summer?  I  have several conversions I'd like to have done this year.

hello guys

im trying to get ahold of GGG or gunrunnerjohn, i guess if they read this i need them to contact me on repairing or selling me what it takes to repair my blue comet. 30-1172-1. its power supply brd i shot and or the lower brd as well, they are both soldered together, i checked the caps and they are way out of spec.

please let me know either GGG or gunrunner,   either guy.

thank you

ron

i would also like to add, that if anyone on here is converting there steam engines to PS3, would you like to sell your old PS2 boards?

i have a blue comet 30-1172-1 and if you want to sell your old brd, to make money to go to PS3 let me know

i would probably buy at least one or maybe more, depending on price and if you dont need the brds, my brds are 2 soldered together, power supply on top i think anyway. 

please let me know

thanks guys.

ron

It should be noted that the PS3 upgrade boards and PS2/3 replacement boards are still running the PS2 sound files and software. All you are really getting is a PS2 board without a battery circuit. Now if you rewrite the boards to a PS3 chain file then you may or may not lose functionality of some components but will get a PS3 sound file but you will lose the ability to rewrite the board back to a PS2 sound file. Everybody is all hot to trot on upgrading PS2 to PS3 and there is no point being that there is actually little to no difference in PS3 boards in a PS2 loco. Still running PS2 sounds and no LED lighting so there is no point in upgrading PS2 to PS3

Thanks Marty. I'll go that route when the upgrade kits hit the streets.

well for those of us that dont know mcuh about this, when i try to "find" the engine with my remote, will it find the right engine? mine is a blue comet, and when i try to find the engine, i want it to find the blue comet, i know you guys know how to do this but i dont.

just asking

thank you

ron

what is in the upgrade kit, can you avoid the wires and not use them and just use the board that is in the bag and swap out with my bad PS2 brd, and not mess with the wires, caps and the rest of it?

please let me know as im looking at 50-1901 kit online.

thank you

ron

Ron, I have a perfect PS2 5 volt board I will sell if you want it, hit my email and we can talk.

i would buy it but how much, all i want is for my blue comet to work as it
should.
30-1172-1, will the remote be able to find it as the blue comet?
let me know
thank you for replying.


In a message dated 3/29/2015 1:29:27 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
alerts@hoop.la writes:

what is your email?
please let me know
ron


In a message dated 3/29/2015 1:29:27 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
alerts@hoop.la writes:

hello
read some of your profile, your gonna love this:
my dad and i are helping restore the champagne lady yes she is quite the
plane, lets just say its a B-17 bomber up in urbana ohio.
they also have a B-25 called the champagne gal also, it is to cool.
let me know about the 5 volt PS2 brd.
thank you
ron


In a message dated 3/29/2015 1:29:27 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
alerts@hoop.la writes:

he has so far rebuilt 3 out of 4 superturbo chargers, all wing flap axles and gear boxes, and is now working on the bombay doors and linkages.

he has restored 3 superturbo chargers and is trying to get 6 total, they only need 4 but want 2 spares, he is restoring them to 0 hours.

man is it interesting to say the least.

WOW..Cool..I know this is off topic, but please get some pix of the B17 and the B25...Love them!!!

The Base Board is a PS-3 so I am assuming, (as Marty mentioned it has not been discussed in the tech note yet) that it has the characteristics of PS-3 so it should pick up DCS signal on either rail for 2R operation, or DC operation.

 

John as far as LED, I don't think they are cheaper.  Retail, they are much more expensive.  While bulk buying from China is cheap, you still have to wire them up.

 

MSRP for a LED harness is $10, for a bulb it is $4 or 5.

 

Sure the bottom board is LED based, but then you have to go with the 40 pin connector and wiring.  While this works for diesel, it doesn't for steam which is otherwise a 2 board set up.

 

This becomes a apple or orange discussion, which do you like better.  While your big into LEDs other aren't.  Plus if you go LED you can't use bulbs and for UPGRADES where much of the original bulbs can still be used, you require more work changing stuff.  Especially big steam and diesels. 

 

Now, I did hear they were still debating how to go with the Diesel Kit.  So it may in fact become a straight PS-3 like kit. 

 

I think June is the target to get Kits into the market.

 

Ron, why not start a separate post on your subject.   G

At this point I'd do the PS32 replacement, buying an old 5V board is a bad investment.  So many of them have died percentage wise that I'd be pretty worried about any old used 5V board.  We can get the PS32 replacement boards now.

 

 

sorry GGG didnt mean to mess this thread up, i apologize to all on the thread.

i didnt want to start a new thread because there was so much talk on here about PS2 and PS3 that i thought it fit right in.

sorry guys

ron

thank you for the advice gunrunner.

how much are the PS32 boards and is that all that i need?

please let me know

ron

Ron, It is not that big a deal to me, but the hi-jacking tends to make the initial thread too long and disjointed.

 

A new thread gets you direct answers specific to your questions, which were many.

 

I sent you an e-mail with info you requested.

 

If you search on this forum you will also find many specific post on how to repair your 5V engine, with PS-2 3V or now also the PS-32.   Almost all of your questions are answered in those threads.  G

I agree with Marty. Not having to mess with the battery charging port will be nice.

I got the ASC update and I would imagine with the DCS/DCC jumper it should have the polarity capabilities for 2rail.

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of all this. Well I guess it's back to school again. Lol

I must say this is all well thought out. Can't wait to see more.
Ralph

I agree twice, that battery charging port always adds some time to the upgrade. 

While I don't find having to install a battery to be a particular problem, especially since smaller 2.4 V battery packs have become available, I agree that the charging port can be a problem.  I like to save that for last, when I have all the other components placed.  Therefore, before drilling are enlarging a hold for the charging port, I have to remove the speaker and other components so that they don't get fouled by metal filings.

Robert, I like to pull trucks and with a bare frame do all my layout work and drilling.  One time clean up and move on.  

You've done so many that I bet you know just where each component should go in each type of loco.

several, yes.

Nice to know there is a replacement.  So when one of mine pop I can send it to MTH for repair.  Just a little too scary reading the posting especially the "its just simple plug & play".  Being retired EE I had my share of plug and plays that didn't do well in the sandbox.  Because once you buy the kit and it doesn't work, its your word vs MTH, so you would end up sending it back to MTH to fix even if it was a bad out of box board, how would you prove it? 

But thats just me, your mileage may vary

The replacement for the 5 volt board is plug and play.  The upgrade kit is a different animal.  That has to be done the same as the previous upgrade kit.  Later this year will be the board sets for replacing boards in a PS2 3 volt system.  In picture 7 you will see the top board with the black connectors is for 5 volt systems and the white is for the 3 volt systems.  The bottom board is the same on both applications.

 

I have a board set on the way for my New York Central Niagara with the 5 volt board.  

As stated, MTH has had a transition plan for boards.  We replaced 5V with PS-2 3V boards with 5V connectors.  As 3V wind down, the first supply chain to dry up was the PS-2 3V with 5V connectors.  So when tech's order AE-15/16, MTH sends the PS-32 5V instead.

 

The PS-32 3V version has not been issued for replacement of PS-2 3V with 3V connectors yet since MTH still has AE-10/11 in stock.  But they did release it in the first PS-3 upgrade kits.  So it is around the corner.

 

Here is another piece of info that I was able to pick up.

 

As stated in a few post, it is designed for use with PS-2 3V sound files.  As the code in the PS-32 pickups the gear ratio and hardware data (light features, smoke control) from the PS-2 sound file.

 

PS-3 has it's own hardware table in the flash code specific to PS-3 engines.  What I found out is PS-3 sound files will work properly in PS-32 also, because by procedure, the sound file engineers still included the hardware table in the PS-3 sound file.  Even though PS-3 boards get the information from the firmware table.  You just load the sound file, not the flash code.

 

The one caveat is that gear ratio and lighting may not match for a specific engine.

 

If you load the specific file from your engine PS-2 upgrade file for PS-2 5V engines, or PS-2 3V for 3V engines you get the original sound file and characteristics.  Maybe some PS-3 kept that all the same, if so it would work.  Diesel ratio as an example seem to be the same.  But PS-3 lighting on diesels can be totally different from model to model because of the expanded lighting capability of PS-3.  G

 

 

Now I am not only bewildered, I am confused.  USed to be simple:  One upgrade kit for steam, one for diesel, and a third, available only for techs, to replace 5-volt boards.

 

Now it seems there are:

 

1. PS3 with connectors to replace PS2 5-volt boards ("3/2") techs only.  Will fit in steam locos that had boards in loco

 

2. PS3 with connectors to replace PS2 3-volt boards, techs only and not yet available.

 

3. PS3 steam upgrade kit with complete wiring, anyone can buy.  Has one board in tender and one in loco.

 

4. PS3 diesel upgrade kit with complete wiring, anyone can buy.  Not yet available.

 

1 & 2 are the same boards but with different plug-in boards on top,

 

Am I correct, or still befuddled?

Robert,

 

It's no more complicated than before:

1. PS3 with connectors to replace PS2 5-volt boards ("3/2") techs only.  Will fit in steam locos that had boards in loco

These replace the older 3 volt boards with 5 volt connectors that were only available to techs. These will go anywhere that the older PS2 3 volt boards with 5 volt connectors would go

 

2. PS3 with connectors to replace PS2 3-volt boards, techs only and not yet available.

These replace the older 3 volt boards with 3 volt connectors that were only available to techs, except where they were sold in the PS2 upgrade kits. These will go anywhere that the PS2 3 volt boards with 3 volt x=connectors would go

 

3. PS3 steam upgrade kit with complete wiring, anyone can buy.  Has one board in tender and one in loco.

Same deal as previous PS2 steam upgrade kit.

 

4. PS3 diesel upgrade kit with complete wiring, anyone can buy.  Not yet available.

Same deal as previous PS2 diesel upgrade kit.

 

1 & 2 are the same boards but with different plug-in boards on top,

Correct.

just for kicks guys:

everything RJR said ! ! ! !! 

hhaaa  hhhaaaaaaa

RJR, The PS-3 upgrade kit only has one PS-32 board for the tender.  No board in the engine.

 

I don't think MTH will say the PS-32 can always go in the engine.  Since only PS-2 5V had boards in the engine, the repair might require an upgrade like kit to put the board in the tender.

 

Frankly this has always been this way as far as boards.  AE-10/11 and 15/16 tech only (at higher cost), even though you could buy upgrade kit with AE-10/11 in it.  G

AE/10/11 what?

never even heard of this and im just watching, i gotta get some popcorn and a drink be right back ! ! ! !! 

is a 15/16 tech  1/16 short of a full tech?

im back with popcorn and my drink

GGG, the numbers "AE-10/11 and 15/16" are meaningless to me, not having a parts list.

Your statement "Since only PS-2 5V had boards in the engine, the repair might require an upgrade like kit to put the board in the tender." is interesting.  I have 2 steamers left with 5-volt boards, both in loco, and have 2 PS2 upgrade kits on the shelf which I acquired to replace them when needed.  MF had opined that if he were replacing an in loco 5-volt board, he'd opt for a re-do with board in tender.  Seems that that would be the way to go, so I'll just hold onto my kits.

 

Which then leaves the question, what does one do about marker and other lights in the loco when the board is moved into the tender?  I guess one way would be to install a CV board (with choke) and just leave the marker and firebox lights on all the time??????? Or add a relay onto the headlight circuit?????

 

I had been told by someone who should know that PS3 steam upgrade kits would have 2 boards, one in loco & one in tender.  I guess he erred????

Marty,

 

what is the average cost on the boards for upgrade or are they all over the map?

I've put a few 3V boards in the locomotive to replace the old cooked 5V board.  Unless you run into fit issues, I don't see doing the whole upgrade kit as an easier route.  Also, if you have a premier locomotive that has additional lighting options, you lose all those with an upgrade kit, you only get headlight control.