running ps2 sound no movement

Keep it powered up for a few hours on the track, then kill the power and wait a bit, then restart.

A flat battery can cause all kinds of issues.

That just happened to me and the remote says Maintenance Required. I assume that means it's time for an oil and lube job.

Also, menu/advanced/info says Low Battery, so I guess I need to power up and let it sit for awhile tomorrow.

Replace or recharge the battery.  A bad battery will cause the engine not to leave neutral on a PS2 engine.  

Stating the obvious:  MTH trains start up in neutral and you must cycle the transformer to go forward.  I assume you know this already. 

Dave,

menu/advanced/info says Low Battery, so I guess I need to power up and let it sit for awhile tomorrow.

You've got it backwards.

Actually, "LOW" battery is a statement about the charging circuit and how hard it's working. In the case of your message, the battery is fine. If the reading was "HI", the charging circuit would be working hard because the battery needed charging.

This and a whole lot more is all in "The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", now available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book from MTH's web store site!

CLICK HERE go to MTH's web page for the book!

Thanks! 

Barry,  I am going to disagree with you.  This is an area not very well explained, but here is what I have seen when working on engines with bad battery circuits.  This comes from analytical measurements while working through hardware faults.

When Low battery comes up it means the output Voltage on the battery plug terminals is too low.  This is not good as it means the charging circuit voltage is not present, or the battery is too drained and dragging down the voltage (like a short).

If you measure the voltage at the pins without a battery installed(open circuit) it should read 5VDC.  With a battery installed it should be loaded down and read slightly higher than the battery voltage (around 2.6V). (The battery can't charge to 5V, it only charges up to around 2.6 to 2.7V).  With a BCR, the capacitor will charge up to 5VDC and it will read 5VDC.

So when the Remote gives a Low Battery it means the voltage present at the terminals is too low.  Most likely because the battery is drained.  This means the Charging circuit is over working.

The engine amperage needs to be monitored while charging.  With sounds and smoke off you needs the amps to be less than .5 in my opinion. Otherwise the risk is the charging circuit is overloaded and the potential to damage one of the FET exist.  So the battery should be charged separately or replaced.   I have been trying to talk to Jason to confirm some of this, from a design point, but after all these repairs and study, I have raised my percentage of repairing Power Supply boards to about 99.5% successful.  Including PS that won't provide battery back up at shutdown, and the more elusive ones that will provide battery back up, but don't actually charge the battery (engines where a BCR won't work).  G

Need more explanation to help you here.  Does the engine start up immediately when you apply power to the TIU?  Or does it stay silent until you start it up?  Do all other functions work such as couplers horn bell?

It may be locked in neutral, so you can do a feature reset and or factory reset to see if that works.  If this is a PS-2 3V engine (double AA like battery) it should still run with DCS unless battery is totally dead.

If this is a PS-2 5V with 9V like battery, it is more likely not to run in DCS with dead battery.  Need to charge or replace the battery.  G

George,

 I am going to disagree with you

No problem. We don't have to agree.

Originally Posted by GGG:

Barry/GGG,

I think I've inadvertently mixed 2 completely different topics and I think I owe you both an apology for doing so. I'm new at this and didn't realize there's a big different in battery requirements between PS2 and PS3 engines. I only run a PS3 Christmas 4-6-0 steamer with 5 lighted passenger cars at the moment. Since PS3 uses a capacitor circuit, I suspect the battery info display always says LOW for PS3 engines and I apologize for my stupid question.

Barry,

I have the book, just haven't gotten around to reading it. I figured I didn't need to yet because my Christmas layout is so small, but maybe I'm wrong. My layout is a single 6x8 oval with 1 turnout that is just for looks for now. It's all powered via 1 terminal track through a TIU with a Z500. So, I did a search for "battery" and realized my error when I got to pg 193 where it begins to discuss HO PS3 engines and mentions the capacitor.

FWIW, I knew the hard cover edition was written before O-Gauge PS3 engines, but I thought the digital edition had been updated for PS3. Being new to DCS and the remote control unit, I'm not sure I would have noted the difference about the battery had I gone through the book when I first bought it. Right now I'm assuming that the battery LOW status simply doesn't apply to my PS3 engine. Am I wrong that it's always going to display LOW unless I buy an older engine?

Dave, No apology required.  G

Understood.  Run a simple test.  Unplug the battery and start up the PS-2 3V on the board tester.  Read amp meter (0-.1amps)  no charging taking place.  Then read battery status with remote.  Indication will be "High".  Then take an older battery you know is drained, and plug it in and redo the test.  You will see higher amps in the .3-.5 amp range.  Test battery.  Will read LOW.

You can do the same with a drained BCR.  While charging and the volume is suppressed (because the voltage is being loaded down by BCR charging, test battery with remote.  It will read LOW. 

I have only seen people complain about  LOW rarely if ever HIGH.  They bring their train out for the train season after sitting in the closet for a year, and the Battery read "LOW" as it is being charged. This is the logic behind my conclusions of what the indication means.   G

Thanks for the replies. Problem solved. Train running and all sounds working.

What was the cure?

That seems simple enough.