Questions on installing ERR CC into MTH PS1 Steamer

A lot of the questions you ask will be dependent on what other things you intend to add…..sound?? chuff?? smoke in time with chuff? etc.,……..for the antenna on this swap, I clear off half the coal on the bunker, drill a hole and pass the antenna wire up through the hole, expose a good portion of the wire, and solder that to a brass strip, then burry the brass strip under a new pile of glued down coal,….works fine with zero issues,….but either way you go, whether you put the CC in the tender, or in the locomotive, you’ll surely need more than 4 pins to carry features back and forth if you want a full compliment of features,…

Pat

Yes to all your initial questions.  For now, leave engine alone, install CC in tender and color pattern is correct.  Coupler on tender can be wired in but change the 1.5V tender bulb to a 18V bulb otherwise you will blow it.   G

@harmonyards posted:

A lot of the questions you ask will be dependent on what other things you intend to add…..sound?? chuff?? smoke in time with chuff? etc.,……..for the antenna on this swap, I clear off half the coal on the bunker, drill a hole and pass the antenna wire up through the hole, expose a good portion of the wire, and solder that to a brass strip, then burry the brass strip under a new pile of glued down coal,….works fine with zero issues,….but either way you go, whether you put the CC in the tender, or in the locomotive, you’ll surely need more than 4 pins to carry features back and forth if you want a full compliment of features,…

Pat

Hey Pat, in due time will probably add the RS board / speaker, I'm not overly picky about chuffing (normally leave smoke units off). I figure for a full installation with smoke control / proper lighting I'll need to upgrade the harness (Fingers crossed a female connector is a drop in replacement for the current 4 pin female connector). For the antenna drilling a small hole then pulling the antenna through definitely seems to be the way to go rather than trying to insulate everything with kapton

@GGG posted:

Yes to all your initial questions.  For now, leave engine alone, install CC in tender and color pattern is correct.  Coupler on tender can be wired in but change the 1.5V tender bulb to a 18V bulb otherwise you will blow it.   G

Thanks GGG, will hold off wiring the bulbs for now just to get started since this will be my first ERR CC installation and just want to get the motor to go vroom vroom and the coupler to go click click without the magic smoke being released.

If future plans include sounds, fan smoke etc….consider upgrading the 4 pin to the 10 pin set up now, to avoid having to double back,…the 10 pin tether set up will require very little mod work to fit in your existing PS1 locomotive,…..and open   up a lot more wiring possibilities,…

Pat

I agree with Pat, usually they drop right in.

Thanks all for the advice, does anyone happen to have a PN handy for the 10 pin connector? (Even better if there's a matching 10 pin tether cable to go with it!) Seems to be the most viable route to upgrade, do a little bit of soldering now rather than fight it down the line

When MTH parts arises from the dead, you can buy them direct.

AG-0000039 is the locomotive 10-pin PCB with connector.

BC-1000002 is the universal 10-pin tender harness

A look at what is involve in a loco/tender tether.

(8) pin

Train America Studios boards had an optical sensor for speed control.  If you don't want cuff sequence with the motion another two tether spots become available.  You may want to control the headlight, and forward marker lights.  Also important, with a small switcher loco, would be the front coupler.   You need a minimum of (8) wires, may be as many as (12). 

Well, that's a look at the obsolete TAS tether usage, not really what you need for ERR.  When I do an ERR upgrade, I typically need 7 wires in the tether.

• (2) Roller/Wheels
• (2) Motor
• (1) Chuff
• (1) Smoke
• (1) Lights

With the MTH 10-pin tether parts I specified, I normally double up two of the smaller leads for the smoke to have a bit more current carrying capacity, that leaves a couple of spare leads.  If you happen to have a front electrocoupler, that accounts for one of the leads.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

When MTH parts arises from the dead, you can buy them direct.

AG-0000039 is the locomotive 10-pin PCB with connector.

-snip-

BC-1000002 is the universal 10-pin tender harness

-snip-

Thanks John! Looks like it may take a while before I can get around to this project pending the MTH parts website. Found an online site that shows they sell it but sadly their website looks to be using insecure http connections , so that's a no-go for now

@SirCaptain posted:

Thanks John! Looks like it may take a while before I can get around to this project pending the MTH parts website. Found an online site that shows they sell it but sadly their website looks to be using insecure http connections , so that's a no-go for now

Contact me via profile, I can set you up with a 10 pin tether & receptacle ….

Pat