I recently purchased an older MTH engine that has PS1(protosounds one) and got it to do almost everything except uncouple by remote control. First I replaced the old battery with a new MTH battery and charged it for 12 hours to make sure it had power, second I had to replace the traction tires on both sides. Found the switch for the smoke unit and it works very well.
I tried the procedure for the newer PS2 engines and it don’t work for the coupler to open. Is there something else I need to do? Also tried running the engine under conventional control feature of the MTH DCS system, would only access the whistle feature in conventional mode beside speed control.
I may take the tender apart and see if I can access the coupler feature by hot wiring it, for a second or two, to open it.
I tried that, I turned the voltage back down also turned off the smoke switch first then tried it. I ran the engine a few feet before trying the uncoupler feature. Looks like I am going to have to bench test the coupler with a small transformer and a couple of test wires.
I just went back through the instructions for PS1, and I made a mistake in my instructions. Use the whistle button instead of the bell button. Sorry about that.
Jim, I hope you know something we don’t know. I have the same coupler problem that has been described here with an early MTH proto 1 f3 set. I tried resetting with instructions per the book but to no avail. I was getting an arming sound for a while and also the hiss when the coupler fires but the knuckle never opened. Now I don’t even get the sounds of arming etc. Maybe I accidentally turned the coupler off with my resets. I reset the coupler using feature 10 in the book.
I haven’t run my PS1 loco in over a year due to having to tear down and rebuild my layout. I remember having the same problem as you, and I think a total reset cured it. Is there a switch under the loco to select which coupler you want to open? My Santa Fe PA set from 1999 has one of those switches. I’ll look into the details later today. I am not feeling well at the moment, and I need to email a professor to let her know that I am staying home today. I’ll be back here later today to report my findings on this isssue.
Thanks for the help! I will try the uncouple feature again maybe tommorow as I am running out of time before going to work.
Also I emailed MTH about getting the instruction manual and they emailed me back a PDF format of the instruction manual, which I find will be very helpful once I download to my printer. I will email you the MTH instructions if you want.
Thanks Jim, I’ll have to look at the instruction book again. Sounds like there is another kind of reset? Maybe like “factory reset” which they use on Proto 2 stuff. Don’t recall seeing anything like that though. I would think that if the knuckle were just stuck, you could still feel it vibrate when you touch it and fire the coupler at the same time but it does’nt. I hope you feel better soon.
I’ve been going through my instruction manual, and to reset everything to factory default, go to feature 18 in Reset. This will override any coupler changes that may have accidentally been done with feature 10. Also, lubricate the coupler knuckle with a small amount of either graphite powder or light oil to be sure it isn’t sticking.