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I'd picked up an MTH SW7 from the large auction site for a project I was working on. The seller swore it was upgraded to PS2 when I notice the cab number was a PS1 release. Thankfully the price I paid was cheap even for a PS1 SW7, as when I opened it I found a board with an OSI chipset, no tach reader on either of the motors, and the original PS1 protocouplers.

I had an MTH RS3 with 3v PS2 and badly flaking paint which I'd originally picked up cheap basically for its innards for a future project, so it looked like this would be it. I swapped the PS1 and PS2 protocouplers, thankfully the PS2 motors were a direct swap for the older ones. I was just about ready to put everything back together when I hit a snag. I'm sure I took pictures of everything before removing any wires from the PS2 board, but now I have no idea where the pictures went. So now, of course, I have no idea where the wires go!

Thankfully the connectors for the board are all keyed with a different number of wires, so they were pretty easy to figure out. It's just the male and female 2 wire connectors I need to piece together.

20230213_201629

The battery is self-evident, but there are 2 black male connectors, one blue, one green and 2 red. There's a black female connector from each of the PS2 protocouplers which I'd like to think go to the other 2 black ones, but which is the front and which is the rear? What are the green and blue, and 2 red connectors for? And I'm not sure if the red and black female connectors seen at left are from the PS2 board, or the PS1. The light connector on the window is from the PS1 engine, can I re-use it with the PS2, or should I swap it or replace it with an LED?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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OK, I was able to figure out which were the connectors for the front and rear couplers and lights from the upgrade manual, and I tracked down the original RS3 chassis (all projects had been put away during Xmas to make room for decorations) which still had the front and rear lights and the marker lights and their connectors (the red ones). As there's no marker lights on the SW9, those won't move over. Heck, it's going to be a challenge to get the battery to fit (may have to go with a BCR2). Still trying to decide if I want to go with the RS3's lights, or LEDs. This board (PS2 3v) puts out 6v to the lights?

@Magicland posted:

Are the "common" wires negative on the MTH engines? I know they're positive on the ERR boards.

On a ERR/Lionel R2LC- lighting, smoke, and coupler outputs are AC and sure, they might have some DC bias, but they are considered AC, especially when switching between conventional and command status. Also, common is frame ground on an ERR R2LC

On a PS2 3V,  rail voltages like "PV" are positive, and the "outputs" are negative returns. Why? Because an N channel FET to DC negative is the easier method in electronics. NEITHER is referenced to frame ground.

So again, common as you are calling it, is and should be called "PV" and that is positive, and then each light or other return path to the board is negative return to DC ground which is NOT AC frame ground.

While this is a steam topic- again PS2 3V board is the same and so discussion of PV is important.

https://ogrforum.com/...-premier-steam-setup

PV is roughly 6V + for the purpose of discussion for adding the LEDs.

More correctly, the lighting outputs are effectively 6VDC with PV being the positive side.  PV is a constant 20-22 volts unregulated, but the lighting negative is PWM to give an effective 6VDC to the lights.  PV also goes to the smoke heater, but there the effective DC voltage varies to change the smoke volume.

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