I purchased an MTH rail-king 3 piece UP gas turbine set at the Las Vegas GATS show over the weekend and am having some major issues getting the engine to run at all. I have read the instruction manual, replaced the rechargable battery temporarily with a 9volt and am following the instructions to a 'T'. I get two dings initially for the reset mode, I leave it on past the 2.2 second initialization mark and then kill the power and power up again. At this point (as I understand it), the locomotive should move like a conventional non DCC locomotive. Unfortunately it just sits there rumbling and not moving. I have tried to see if I can get the programming to work by hovering between 8-6 volts, but I can only get the first clink and then it won't give me anymore. The only other sounds I have been able to get it to emit are the brakes woosh when I power up fully followed by turning the power down and a single ding when I turn off power completely, which supposedly means the PS1 and DCRU are working properly. I am using an Lionel 1033 transformer which is on the approved list for protosounds 1. Is there any other troubleshooting I can do from home before giving up and either removing the PS1 module and replacing it with a conventional e-unit or convincing my wife to let me bite the bullet and spend another 200-300$ on an engine I already spent 300 dollars on to purchase? (single income working man raising a family). Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give to me.
Followup: After a rather bummed out sounding E-mail to MTH last night slightly prior to my post here, I got a rather pleasant surprise this morning that they would send out a new chip at no charge to me. Wow, service for a newly purchased 7 year old loco. This is my first MTH loco, but I think I may have to purchase more if their customer service is always this good .
Glad to hear about your positive response from MTH. I have a couple engines that I haven't had out in ages, almost afraid to get them out and see what they don't do. Lets us know how the new chip works out. Cheers Greg
Further update- Chip arrived, I installed it. WOW what a puller. With some effort it will haul quite a load, even do 6 18" k-line HW cars up a short 5% grade. Now if I can just find an N scaler who will trade me some goodies for a Railking Challenger I should be all set
Bill, Glad to hear that the chip solved your problem. Hope you get the Challenger. It has been a good loco too, from the comments I've heard. Greg
Well, the ProtoSound worked like a charm until I took it really slowly through a switch, I think the juice running through the switch did a number on the protosound unit as it now just sits there with a very dim bulb. -Sigh- Does anyone know of a way to take out the Protosounds unit and just use the DRCU already in it? I've decided if I really need sounds for my layout I can always hook my laptop up to an external cheapo speaker system and play .wavs or Mp3s.
