Just received a ten year old MTH alco diesel with protosound 1 Any advise on the best way to start it up and avoid the dreaded three clanks? The unit is brand new in the box.
Buy and install a new battery before attempting a start-up !!!
Been there; done that. [:I]
I would advise getting a BCR (Battery Component Replacement). There are a few companies that make them, they generally work the same and run about $20 from most shops. The nice thing is that they will help you avoid the 3 clanks of death, and many of them take only 30-60 seconds to charge, as opposed to the 18 hours or so with the original batteries. You can find the most common ones advertised in CTT.
Installing these items is as simple as replacing a regular 9v battery, with just removing the old one and installing the new one. Getting the shell off with proper access to the battery through the electronics boards will be the most difficult part. Incidentally, if you are really eager to run the engine, you can use a 9 volt battery as a temporary replacement, but you still want to get a BCR, because if the 9 volt wears down too far, you will get the 3 clanks from that as well. Be careful when working inside the shell not to break any boards or get any static electricity on them.
Outside of that, proto 1 engines are great to use and offer a really great operating experience for conventional control.
A few weeks back I bought via E-Bay a 13 yr old MTH steamer with ProtoSound 1 (by QSI). The engine is in mint condition externally, but would not get out of neutral for love or money. I even replaced the battery and went through a “reset chip” procedure, to no avail.
I talked with an MTH tech rep who went through an exhausting list of procedures to do while we were on the phone. The conclusion was one of the circuit boards memory must be fried. He suggested I either send it to MTH for fixing or send it off to an MTH service center to upgrade to PS-2.
After the phone conversation was finished, I reassembled the tender and put the package on the track and, surprise, it worked and has worked ever since.
Hope you don’t have that level of consternation in getting your engine to work. I just thought you might find this interesting since you have an older one to get working.
I just bought one of those BRC’s, but have not installed yet. You can find a vendor for it on E-Bay.
Regards,
Billbobboy1
If you have access to a Z-4000, you can pretty much tell what’s going on with a PS-1 loco by just hitting the PROG button AFTER it comes out of reset (aka clinks/clanks). If you don’t get three clanks of death hit the button and see what code is displayed. Usually it’s 51 or 52, aka locked in Neutral. If you use the buttons, you can unlock it and then do a board reset (Feature 18) to restore the board to its factory deault. You can not successfully do an 18 unitl AFTER the board is unlocked. If the loco shows Feature 18 but still won’t move you probably have a bad relay in the lower board and it will probably have to be replaced.
I would follow the above information and intall a bcr before attempting to run it. You can buy a nimh battery that will also work, but with the bcr, you install it, and forget about it. No worries about a battery again. I have 2 engines that are on the dreaded “scrambled board” list, and they have worked fine with bcr’s installed for over 3 years now.
Chuck, Is there a chart that gives the codes and their definition ?
I’ve got a Gallopin Goose that has been a real pain for awhile. [censored]
See if the manual is available on the MTH website.
I found this on the MTH web site for mine.
http://extranet.mth-railking.com/pdfapp/pdfs/instruction/30DL17153I.pdf
hope that helps
Follow up on my ten year old proto 1 diesel. Tested it with a new 9v battery, then put a bcr unit from Jand W in it, cleaned the dried up grease from the gearboxes. Has over 150 hours on it now works great. Thank you all for input.
Billybobboy1,
It sounds to me like one of the boards was just a little loose. Congratulations on finding the problem and saving on the dreaded repairs and shipping.
Joe