MTH4136 set with Steam engine and Protosound 2

Classic Toy Trains Forum
1

I have this set and am having a problem with it. The engine acts erratically in the DCS mode meaning sometimes it goes fairly quickly in the slowest speed and other times it acts normally. I have both charged and replaced the battery thinking it was the problem but I don’t think it is. I have wiped the pick up rollers with a clean cloth and it seemed to fix it for a couple of forward and reverse cycles but it still acts up. Sometimes when I stop it especially in the reverse mode it goes dead sometimes coming back up and I have to restart it with the remote. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated. I don’t think it is the remote because my others work normally.

Clarence Croxall

2

From the MTH Yahoo Group: How old is battery? NiCd Batteries as a rule will last quite awhile between charges unless the battery is very old or has some internal defect that creates a discharge path. The PS1 9V battery is designed to carry the electronics during loss of voltage during shutdown or momentary loss over dirty track. I suspect that running your engine at 4 or 5 volts is below the keep alive voltage of the PS1 electronics so the board now has to use the battery to stay working instead of track voltage. The 9V battery gets it charge from the charger or track voltage that is above 8 or 9 volts and so the 5V won’t replenish the charge being drawn to run the board especially with sounds running.

3

If you have DCS, you have Protosound II. Early PS II used a 9 volt battery, newer production uses a 3 volt battery (two 1.5 volt batteries wired in a small blue package). Some things to try:

Yes, charge the batteries by parking the locomotive as per the manual.

Use “Hot Buttons”, keep pushing “S5” until you see the written list of available features, then scroll down to “Track Voltage”. With DCS you can check the “Track Voltage” as read by the locomotive, this lets you check the track and locomotive pickups condition.

Menu Item, “Control”, “ACC Rate” and “DEC Rate” , reset the rates of acceleration and decelleration to one of the values. (so you