UP FEF 4-8-4 tender marker question

I have the MTH Premier FEF with the same arrangement.  I light the red light all the time, and of course the reverse taillight when I'm in reverse.  Pretty sure that's how it would normally be controlled.

I don't understand the comment about no power on the marker output, I'm pretty sure that's powered for any steam upgrade.

Did you add a bulb/LED for the marker or did it come with one? This was a PS2 engine. Others I have seen only have a single incandescent bulb for the tailight. No lamp for the marker. Are you powering the red light using the yellow connector or did you make your own supply? 

The yellow connector would have no power if thats how the sound file was programmed. Thats what I am trying to determine, if its programmed that way or I have a bad PS3 board.

Pete

Mine was a PS/1 engine before I started hacking.  I added LED's for both the red marker and the backup light.

If you're using a converted sound file, it may have had a mistake in the conversion, there have been several of those.  With the upgrade kit, you may have to load the steam PS32 chain files, the last several steam kits that I've gotten came with the diesel chain files loaded.  You can also load a PS/3 FEF sound file into the PS32, I know the PS/3 file has the marker outputs enabled.  With the PS/3 file, you also get the quillable whistle.  This is where the PS/2 test set comes in handy, I can see all the board operation before I pop it into the locomotive.

My PS3 kit came with a Diesel sound file. It sounded like my SD70 at start up.

I tried both PS2 files I was able to find. One listed as PS2 and the other listed as PS2 upgrade 3V. The 3V file had low volume and distorted sound ao I loaded the original PS2 file. Now have decent volume with the supplied speaker and reasonable clarity. All other functions work. I built my own 6 v supply for cab, firebox and class lights as I had no mux board in the tender. OK for me as I don't need to toggle the cab light.

I am using the consumer PS3 kit. Can I load PS32 chain files in the kit board? If so where do I find those. This is my first attempt at PS3. All previous upgrades used PS2 kits.

Pete

You have to load the steam PS32 chain files for proper operation.  If you've never loaded a chain file before, there's a bit of a power cycle rain-dance needed to properly load them.

You use the FLASH icon on the loader toolbar and follow the same process you use to load a sound file, browse for the ZIP file attached and say load.

Once it loads, remove all power from the engine and TIU, wait until you hear the beep code complete.  Then power up the TIU & engine, and you should again get a series of beeps and then it'll start up.  At this point, I shut down and again turn off power for about 30 seconds, then fire it up again.  At this point, it should come up silent and you can start it up using the remote.  Then you should be good to go.  At this point, I'm likely to do a factory reset, primarily to be able to load it again with the proper name displayed.  Since you probably don't have the dealer loader, you can't put in a permanent name, so that step may not be needed.

One oddity.  If the proper files are already loaded, it's likely not to do the beep codes.  In that case, the proper steam files were already loaded.  Given that they come with diesel sound files, I don't take that for granted.

I've attached the PS32 steam chain files for full sized smoke units to this post.

PS32_Steam-CPF.zip

Thanks John. I will give it shot since this is a learning experience.

Pete

PS/3 in general has been a learning experience.   The oddities of the PS32 board still have me scratching my head at times.

John, thank you again. That did the trick. Must have been a programming issue. The LED is OK as is the circuit that drives it. About halfway through the download it had to make a number of tries to complete but finally did. Not sure if this had anything to do with it but even the volume seems to have increased.

Pete

as info the large red light on the front of the loco was there to show when the train was in emergency , it warned trains on the ajacent track that there could be something blocking that track from what ever had put the train into emergency.  I am not sure but i suspect the rear one was there for the  same reason on  reverse movements. the light was tripped when the brake pipe went to 0#.

Rick Rubino posted:

as info the large red light on the front of the loco was there to show when the train was in emergency , it warned trains on the ajacent track that there could be something blocking that track from what ever had put the train into emergency.  I am not sure but i suspect the rear one was there for the  same reason on  reverse movements.

Nope. The "large red light on the front" is a Mars Red Signal light and does indeed come on when the air brakes go into emergency (or it can be activated manually by the Engineer). 

The single red light on the center rear of the tender is simply a "red light", which was turned on by the Engineer whenever the locomotive was either running light, i.e. all by itself, or when it was in rear end helper service, pushing a train. Thus the single red light represented the "rear of a train". Virtually all UP main line steam locomotives had that single red light on the center rear of the tender, and it had nothing to do with the air brakes.

the light was tripped when the brake pipe went to 0#.

Only the front red Mars Signal Light.

Hot Water posted:

Rick Rubino posted:

as info the large red light on the front of the loco was there to show when the train was in emergency , it warned trains on the ajacent track that there could be something blocking that track from what ever had put the train into emergency.  I am not sure but i suspect the rear one was there for the  same reason on  reverse movements.

Nope. The "large red light on the front" is a Mars Red Signal light and does indeed come on when the air brakes go into emergency (or it can be activated manually by the Engineer). 

The single red light on the center rear of the tender is simply a "red light", which was turned on by the Engineer whenever the locomotive was either running light, i.e. all by itself, or when it was in rear end helper service, pushing a train. Thus the single red light represented the "rear of a train". Virtually all UP main line steam locomotives had that single red light on the center rear of the tender, and it had nothing to do with the air brakes.

the light was tripped when the brake pipe went to 0#.

Only the front red Mars Signal Light.

 

Jack, would the red light be lit on the back when backing the locomotive up running light? As when it’s backing down to couple onto a car(s)?......thanks!...........Pat

Norton posted:

John, thank you again. That did the trick. Must have been a programming issue. The LED is OK as is the circuit that drives it. About halfway through the download it had to make a number of tries to complete but finally did. Not sure if this had anything to do with it but even the volume seems to have increased.

Pete

I always load PS/3 boards with DC power as that seems to go smoother.  Also, if you have trouble loading, MTH recommended around 30 feet of wire from the TIU to your load track, they had a coil of wire under the workbenches at their site.

Loading the chain and proper sound files will frequently help with the volume, some of the conversions didn't get that quite right.

harmonyards posted:

Hot Water posted:

Rick Rubino posted:

as info the large red light on the front of the loco was there to show when the train was in emergency , it warned trains on the ajacent track that there could be something blocking that track from what ever had put the train into emergency.  I am not sure but i suspect the rear one was there for the  same reason on  reverse movements.

Nope. The "large red light on the front" is a Mars Red Signal light and does indeed come on when the air brakes go into emergency (or it can be activated manually by the Engineer). 

The single red light on the center rear of the tender is simply a "red light", which was turned on by the Engineer whenever the locomotive was either running light, i.e. all by itself, or when it was in rear end helper service, pushing a train. Thus the single red light represented the "rear of a train". Virtually all UP main line steam locomotives had that single red light on the center rear of the tender, and it had nothing to do with the air brakes.

the light was tripped when the brake pipe went to 0#.

Only the front red Mars Signal Light.

 

Jack, would the red light be lit on the back when backing the locomotive up running light? As when it’s backing down to couple onto a car(s)?......thanks!...........Pat

No, as the "back-up light", i.e. the tender's head light would be on for visibility at night. Absolutely NO red light in the direction of movement!

Now with the new chain files installed the engineer (me) can now turn the rear red light on and off manually with the soft key.

Pete

Norton posted:

Now with the new chain files installed the engineer (me) can now turn the rear red light on and off manually with the soft key.

Pete

Just like the real thing. Imagine THAT.