MTH TIU

["Ira Schneider" <ira_schneider@iname.com>]

I took the club's TIU and handheld remote controls home and experimented with them on my home layout.
The results were not promising.

I called MTH service and talked to a technician.  She walked me through the following:

1. One of the handheld's could not communicate with the TIU at all.  Apparently, it is a common problem
    for the RF board to come loose from rough handling.  She told me how to open the remote controller
    and reseat the board.  It now works properly.

2. The TIU functioned normally on 3 of the 4 channels - one channel appeared to pass the transformer
     voltage through but not the DCS signals.  Of course, this channel was connected to track 2 (our
     "primary" MTH ProtoSound 2 track).  She had me do a DCS reset function, which restored the
     functionality.  She thinks that someone turned of the DCS function for this channel.

As far as I can tell, the TIU and remotes are now working correctly.  One set of batteries died while
I was testing the handheld, so that might have contributed to the erratic operation.  I will bring the
TIU and remotes back the next time we set up the club layout.

By the way, I noticed at one recent show that one of the MTH handhelds lost all
data (i.e. track and engine programming).  She said the only way that could happen is if someone
invoked the Remote Reset function.  Please be careful with the MTH remote controllers.  Do not
invoke any reset function or any DCS or TIU configuration function unless you are SURE you
know what effect that function has on the system.  I have programmed both controllers to include
2 definitions for track 2 - conventional and command mode.  You can add your own engines
(and delete them if you want), and change any parameters for your engines.  You can also define
lashups.  However, please don't modify any system settings.

Thanks.


Ira