MTH Engines And Their Common Negative

No, this is in no way meant to be a facetious title. It is about the LED wiring method MTH employed which the author just discovered. He is not upset about it just disappointed.

At the most recent estate sale that our club held there was an MTH Erie Lackawanna GP35 available for sale. The author has a soft spot for GP35s from his long ago home in West Virginia. The B&O main line went through the middle of town and he vividly remembers the thundering 5 engine GP35 105 car coal trains gunning for the "17 mile grade" up and over the Allegheny Front as they screamed through town gaining speed. 

The MTH engine did not run or do anything for that matter but the price was only $10.00 so he said "I can fix that". Yeah, sure!

He stripped down the engine to bare bones, tossed the burned out decoder (it was definitely burnt) and used a CR2032 3v battery to test the LEDs and determine which wires were what. After some time with the wiring he determined that all of them had a common negative voltage with the different colored wires as the positive for each LED. THIS IS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF THE OTHER DECODERS THE AUTHOR HAS DEALT WITH mainly Soundtraxx and LokSound which have a positive common!!

What does this mean? It would be necessary to unsolder the LEDs, flip them 180 degrees and re-solder them.

Let's see...$10.00...wait!! he will have to buy a $100.00 decoder to get it to run at all (sound, etc...) OR he can throw it through the window. 

Hmmmm...window...decoder...window...decoder...?

So remember this the next time you're tempted to buy and fix an MTH engine. It is  going to involve more work than you bargained for.

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Scale Trains Warranty If You Use a Non-Loksound Decoder (response from ScaleTrains)

In January, Jeff Mutter, on the MRH forum, posted this discussion with Scale Trains concerning using a non-ESU decoder in one of their engines. The following is his explanation and the responses from Scale trains to his concerns. This author considers the discussion to be important enough to re-publish it as it effects us all.

I just bought two of the new Scale Trains GP40s, in “DCC-Ready” format, because I prefer to use SoundTraxx decoders.  After opening one up to install an ST 21-pin decoder, I found that you must change  two dip switches in order to use a non-Loksound decoder.  According to the manual, this disables the provided keep-alive, and renders most of the auxiliary lighting features unusable.  When I emailed Scale Trains to ask about function mapping and resistor values so I can replace their proprietary motherboard with a Decoder Buddy, they told me they don’t have that information “yet from our China facilities”, and oh, by the way, because we don’t supply SoundTraxx decoders, if you install one you void the warranty.  Here’s their email (I added the emphasis):

 

While I understand your frustration, this information required research throughout different departments, including one of our four owners. The finding was this data is not yet available through our facility in China.

As a friendly reminder, it is your choice to upgrade your locomotives to aftermarket decoders, which I might add, voids your manufacturer warranty since we do not inventory SoundTraxx components. Please be aware of that. (emphasis by Jeff Mutter)

This a reply received from ScaleTrains owner:

"This is also an old complaint. With all that we are trying to do with our models in regard to sounds and lighting effects other brands of the decoders cannot keep up. In fact, in some instances, the ESU decoders do not keep up. This is the reason we have and extra IC on many of the our motherboards that the decoder communicates with to achieve the desired effects. Unfortunately, that comes with some proprietary software from ESU to do it. We have had many discussions with customers about this subject. You will see this as a standard response from Soundtraxx supporters.  My unpopular example is that, you purchase an automobile but do not like the factory stereo system and want to put in a aftermarket model. Is it the auto manufactures responsibility to build the car to accept any possible after market system? No, it is up to the aftermarket company to build a system that works with the car. "

I find this attitude extremely customer-unfriendly, and feel they are egregiously misrepresenting their product when they call it “DCC-Ready”.  If they won’t warrant their product with another manufacturer’s decoder installed, then it most certainly is not “DCC-Ready”.  Perhaps “Loksound Ready”, but definitely not DCC-Ready.

 

Although I have a bunch (6-8 or so) Scale Trains locomotives, I am now a former Scale Trains customer.

Jeff Mutter, Severna Park, MD

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LokProgrammer Software 5.2.12 Released

The LokProgrammer software 5.2.12 is now available for download. This includes the firmware 5.12.177 for all LokSound 5 and LokPilot 5 decoders. 

Main changes are:

• Addition of the "grade crossing" option for "Single Strobe Random" light effect 
• New CFL signals for SignalPilot are available as well as additions to DB H/V and SBB L signals
• In the virtual Driver's Cab, you can now select between 500mA and 1000mA maximum current 
• This allows you to test locomotives with higher current draw such as (ESU) locomotives with smoke units.
  
  

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