Upgrading an Older Premier ABBA Diesel Set to PS-2

Here is the set I want to cconvert. Too nice to not be using!

Hi Rod,

Does the slave kit have a pass-thru cable? If not, it is easy to find them on the MTH parts site. I can help later today if someone doesn't beat me to it.

A challenge (not too hard) is installing the standoffs for the female part of the tether. I have standoffs and 2mm bolts that I can send you along with instruction. The truck on the B unit should have two holes near the coupler that are easy to tap.

I did this for a buddy a few months ago, definitely doable!

This? (not sure about length, but could splice if it is too short)

@ScottM posted:

This? (not sure about length, but could splice if it is too short)

That's actually not the one you're looking for as a pass-thru.  Here's a pass-thru for a B-Unit.

You are obviously right & thanks for checking!  I looked at a parts diagram & the exploded parts photo indicated the cable had a pcb attached. Didn't think to double check the individual part photo.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

That's actually not the one you're looking for as a pass-thru.  Here's a pass-thru for a B-Unit.

That is the exact kit I need John; thanks. I had a look in the slave board kit and it contains that exact cable to mod one B unit. So a duplicate will set me up to convert both B units. Now to check availability! Thanks to both John and Scott for your input guys!

Rod

Success! Found the cable in stock at Trainz. $20 plus shipping. Thanks!

The cable comes with the true Slave kit.  Along with necessary screws and spacers if need on the trucks.  G

Have never installed a slave kit; and the manual has no wiring hookup diagram like the master conversion kit. Can I assume that the slave board is equipped with the same 4,5,7,8 & 12 pin connectors like the master kit? And are the pinouts the same? I have not opened the ESD protective bag yet, so what the board looks like is a mystery to this point.

It's very similar, but obviously the tether coming from the master and going to the slave board is new.  Do you have an actual slave upgrade kit?  I've never used one of these, but I do have a slave test cable for the test set.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

It's very similar, but obviously the tether coming from the master and going to the slave board is new.  Do you have an actual slave upgrade kit?  I've never used one of these, but I do have a slave test cable for the test set.

Affirmative; it's a complete PS-2 AA/ABA slave board kit ii-0001905. It has one B unit 10 pin pass-thru harness as well as a complete replacement lead unit wiring harness with all connectors, light pigtails etc. And the lead to trailing unit 10 pin harness for the lead unit too. It seems pretty complete, well thought out.

Both lead and slave harnesses include a 3/4" x 1" lighting pcb with 5 color coded 2 pin male connectors to accomodate coupler, markers, headlight, MARS light, and cab light functions. All pre-wired to the main harness. These seem to be intended to replace the original constant voltage boards in both units. The instructions mention that you can re-use the original GOW bulbs as long as a constant voltage board was used. Otherwise there is a complete set of replacement lights with color coded harnesses that can be used. Also replacement 1.6mm green and red marker led pairs included. I think I'll use the new harnesses and lighting boards, why not?

I've never actually seen that kit, but I had heard it existed.

So why did you need to buy a harness when the kit comes with it?  Kit should have had instructions too.  There was a kit for the Gas Turbine and different kit for the ABA diesels.  I have used them both.  I have also scratch build the kit to do upgrades with the PS-32 board when folks do not want to upgrade both units to PS-3.

Your upgrading the A unit and that harness has doubled up wires going to the 10pin connector that will lead to the external harness.  The B unit is a pass through.  The Trail A has the external male harness the goes to slave board via 10 pin.  Lead A uses 3V connectors, Trail A is 5V.  The slave board has different # pin connector so you can't mess it up.  10 pin input, 8 pin outputs to lights and couplers, 7 pin power no tach, 5 pin motor, 4 pin smoke.

You do need to swap some trucks from Lead to trail because PS-1 had external harness on lead A and the convention for PS-2 is the Lead A has female connector and trail A has external harness.  That way running PS-2 Lead A as a separate unit you do not have a harness dangling out the rear.  G

@GGG posted:

So why did you need to buy a harness when the kit comes with it?  Kit should have had instructions too.  There was a kit for the Gas Turbine and different kit for the ABA diesels.  I have used them both.  I have also scratch build the kit to do upgrades with the PS-32 board when folks do not want to upgrade both units to PS-3.

Your upgrading the A unit and that harness has doubled up wires going to the 10pin connector that will lead to the external harness.  The B unit is a pass through.  The Trail A has the external male harness the goes to slave board via 10 pin.  Lead A uses 3V connectors, Trail A is 5V.  The slave board has different # pin connector so you can't mess it up.  10 pin input, 8 pin outputs to lights and couplers, 7 pin power no tach, 5 pin motor, 4 pin smoke.

You do need to swap some trucks from Lead to trail because PS-1 had external harness on lead A and the convention for PS-2 is the Lead A has female connector and trail A has external harness.  That way running PS-2 Lead A as a separate unit you do not have a harness dangling out the rear.  G

I have two identical addon B units, so I needed the second pass-thru harness. Thanks for the connector info George, that should work fine.

The slave kit manual is skimpy compared to the master kit manual. Not much info but it does mention swapping rear trucks on the A units, to reverse the orientation of the connectors and the tethers as you suggest. It also suggests flipping the shell on the B unit 180 if possible, so as to reverse the truck orientation. That should work fine with these F-3 B units it appears.

In reflecting on this project it would have made a lot more sense to simply use two master upgrade kits and do away with all the nuisance inter-connecting tethers. And it would have been cheaper too since the master kits were $150 and the slave kit was $168. When I got them years ago it seemed like the right way to go though. What was I thinking LOL? Haha.

Rod

Here is the lighting connector board I mentioned earlier:

It looks like a pretty handy way to organize all the front end lighting in these guys.

So do that and then keep the slave kit for a repair for a production aba set.  Harness can be for repair.  You can use the Lead A harness for a upgrade of a Diesel and just remove the wires to the 10 pin.  G

Eliminating the harness was enough for me to do separate full upgrades for anything I do.   The diesel A-B-A is somewhat of a PITA to get cabled up at times.