[machinist]

Good Evening Everyone,

I have an MTH GP38-2 from 2013 that is factory PS3 equipped. This particular engine did not come with ditch lights, strobe light or front & rear marker lights. I am swapping another shell(that was a dummy) with a different roadname that requires front & rear marker lights onto this chassis.

The photos show the chassis with the PS3 electronics I am using. All plugs are already being used and accounted for except for the 4 red plugs and 1 white plug(all are 2 pin female plugs) as shown in the photos. The white plug uses purple/green wires. 2 of the red plugs use purple/brown wires. The other 2 red plugs use 2 purple wires to one pin and a black wire to the other pin. I have no idea what these different empty plugs are used for and can't find any wiring diagram for reference. Does anyone know which plugs to use when adding the front & rear led markers? Or a couple of photos of a Premier GP38-2/GP7 or 9 chassis with factory PS3 and the front & rear markers? In addition, does anyone have the correct part numbers for the factory GP38 wiring harnesses with the leds for the front and rear markers?

Thanks for the help

 

[Norton]

Nick, here is the link to the PS3 Diesel upgrade kit. It has a wiring diagram for those connectors assuming what you have is like this kit. It appears to be the same.

https://mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/instruction/50as18328i.pdf

Pete

 

[T-Man]

I found this, Does it match at all?

 

[machinist]

I found this, Does it match at all?


T-Man,

Thanks for your response, but unfortunately my PS3 setup looks completely different as far as the arrangement of the location & number of pins and plugs. I have one plug with 40 pins and another plug with 8 pins. Thanks for your effort.

 

[machinist]

Nick, here is the link to the PS3 Diesel upgrade kit. It has a wiring diagram for those connectors assuming what you have is like this kit. It appears to be the same.

https://mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/instruction/50as18328i.pdf

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your response. That PS3 upgrade board wiring diagram looks close but there are some differences from mine and a couple things I don't understand. On the upgrade wiring diagram, pin 31 shows it to be for the led markers and a harness with with a yellow plug-times 2. There are 2 marker harnesses, so where does the 2nd harness plug into? What am I missing? My chassis also has the plates for the spring loaded power feed/plastic connector blocks that are used for the headlight, taillight and rear number boards, so the wires for those items coming from the 40 pin plug are soldered to the plates. The leads from those lights are plugged into the large plastic block with the springs.

Right now, I'm thinking my white plug would be for the strobe light. 2 of the red plugs would be for ditch lights/or markers and the other 2 red plugs for mars lights/or markers. This is just a WAG on my part. It would be nice to see a factory PS3 diagram or the above mentioned photo in my original post. When it comes to wiring & electronics, I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack!

 

[Norton]

Unfortunately I have not been to MTH school and I think a lot of the factory stuff is only available to their techs. I suspect the polarity out of those connectors is the same though so if you have an LED from an MTH engine that has a connector that mates with those you might just try them one by one to see the effect. ie hit ditch lights and see if anything happens assuming your sound file supports ditch lights.

Pete

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Here's the wiring for the PS/3 diesel board, this comes from the PS/3 Diesel upgrade kit documentation. Note that the chain and sound files may not enable all the features, so you have to actually test them to see if they're enabled in your configuration.

 

[machinist]

Pete & GRJ,

Thanks for the help with the diagrams. I thought this would be a plug and play, but not so fast Ke-Mo-Sabe! With your diagrams and some digging on the MTH site that has exploded views on much earlier GP38-2's along with tracing some of the wires on my chassis, I think I've got it figured out.

Even though this is a Premier factory PS3 engine, there are carryovers from earlier Premier PS2 engines concerning where the power is picked up for the exterior lighting(f&r headlights, number boards, and apparently marker lights). On my chassis, the wiring for the f&r headlights, rear number boards, and f&r markers, is soldered to their corresponding pinouts of the 40 plug connection on the PCB. The wiring for these components is then hard wired/soldered to the flat plates at each end of the chassis as shown in my photos. The black plastic blocks with the copper springs slide onto the body mounting posts. The short wiring harnesses for the headlights/number boards/markers then plug into the plastic blocks. When the engine shell is mounted on the chassis, the springs make contact with the plates on the chassis and the power connection is made. In my case, I need 2 more plastic blocks with the copper springs(one for each end of the chassis) along with the marker light wiring harnesses w/plugs. I envy you guys that are good with wiring/electronics-I hate electricity-LOL. This will be put off for a couple days as I am having surgery tomorrow. Thanks again for the help guys.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Nick, if you're wanting the spring contact blocks, I have them. As for the markers, are you looking for red or green? I know I have several sets of the red markers.

 

[DennyM]

This is why I love this hobby. So much more than putting a train on the track and running it.

 

[machinist]

Nick, if you're wanting the spring contact blocks, I have them. As for the markers, are you looking for red or green? I know I have several sets of the red markers.

Good Morning John,

Still kicking after surgery yesterday. Had a small tumor removed from under my right jawbone. Looks like I took a few good uppercuts(especially with my now semi-red hair and Casper skin. Can't talk or eat very well right now but can type on computer about trains!

Thanks for the parts offer. I would need one of each block as the blocks are different thicknesses for the front & rear. One 2 spring block for the front and one 4 spring block for the rear. I would also need the copper springs that mount into the blocks. As for the markers/harnesses/plugs, I would like one green and one red, but I could live with both being red. From the info I've dug up, these harnesses are the short ones, between 60mm-75mm long. That would be great if you can help me out-let me know what you have and the cost and we'll go from there.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

I do have one red and one green set. The red have longer leads, but that shouldn't be a problem.

You have to pick from the 4-contact blocks, there are two styles, lefty and righty. There is only one style of the 2-contact blocks.

 

[machinist]

I do have one red and one green set. The red have longer leads, but that shouldn't be a problem.

You have to pick from the 4-contact blocks, there are two styles, lefty and righty. There is only one style of the 2-contact blocks.

View attachment 514684

View attachment 514686

John, in your bottom photo, I would need the 4 contact block on the left. You can private message me with cost & shipping for everything. Or I can just email you personally with my address and we'll go from there(you have my two 3rd Rail CP engines there for upgrades). Thanks

 

[machinist]

Update on my MTH dummy shell onto PS3 power chassis swap/conversion with illuminated marker lights.

Thanks to GRJ providing me with the necessary marker light blocks, contact springs, and led wiring harnesses/plugs, I installed the markers into the former dummy shell. Since I am not that familiar with DCS and I do not have the full DCS setup at home, I took the engine over to my friends layout where he is all set up with that system. We got the engine started and running fine but there were no lights working anywhere. After my buddy did some searching on the DCS remote, he located the menu sections where he he was able to turn on the headlights, number board lights, and the interior cab lights. However, no joy with the marker lights-they will not light, and he could not find anywhere in the DCS remote to turn the marker lights on. This is with the remote recognizing this particular engine/chassis 20-20210-1 BNSF GP38-2 cab #2044. This powered engine/chassis did not originally come with marker lights and my buddy thinks that's why there's no place in the engines menu to turn them on/off. So a few questions for you MTH DCS/PS3 gurus on the forum. Am I somehow going to have to give this engine a new name/id into the DCS remote from another GP38-2(that has factory installed operating marker lights) and then look in that menu for a place to turn the markers on/off? And if so, once that's done will my engine then retain that new id information for the next time the engine is operated? Need some more help here guys.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

You will probably have to look around for an engine with a similar prime mover and horn that has markers. When you find one, load that sound file and see if that gets you going. You should keep the existing name.

 

[machinist]

Thanks John. I'll have to lean on someone else in my area for that procedure, as that's way beyond both my equipment and DCS knowledge.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Well, you need a DCS system to do a sound file load, so that's the first piece of equipment you need. You also have to have the Consumer Loader program and a link from a Windows computer to the TIU.