Walthers Proto 1000 RS-2 Wiring/Tsunami Install

[Birdog]

All,

I am in the process of putting a Tsunami AT-1000 in a Walthers Proto 1000 RS-2. However as I began the install when removing the exsisting board I noticed that the pickup wires seem to be reversed.

Now, I never ran the loco first as I don't have DC pack anymore. I took pictures before removal and have confirmed that the red wire was going to the left pick-up tab and the black was going to the right.

Now the question is do I install the Tsunami with the wires reversed or do I straighten them out and put them on the proper tabs of the AT-1000? Will this harm the decoder? What other wires are reversed? If I leave them reversed does it affect the direction control? 

I hope these questions aren't too stupid but I am slightly confused and can't find anything on the web that will help me out. 

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

[gmpullman]

Hi,

I have run across quite a few locomotives that do not follow any kind of logical wiring color for the motor leads. Life-Like is one example where I did some hard wire installs and "assumed" that the red wire was + and the black negative...  Nope, just the opposite!

No harm done. You can program the NDOT or Normal Direction Of Travel to reverse and this will have the same effect as swapping the motor wires. (off hand I do not have the CV values in front of me for Tsunami, I'm lazy and let DecoderPro do it) The only time you would get in trouble is if you mixed up the leads from the front truck and rear truck pick-ups. That would cause a short.

Like David points out, If you supply + power to the motor + terminal the engine should move forward (you could use a 9 volt battery or find an unused DC wall-wart transformer, get an inexpensive voltmeter and then you can sort out which motor lead is positive that way.

Hope this helps, Ed

[cacole]

With today's tendency for everything to come out of the same factory in China, where NMRA decoder color coding seems to be a totally alien concept, I leave nothing to chance -- trace everything with a meter.

Reversing motor direction by reprogramming CV29 doesn't always solve the problem either, because on some decoders the lights will still be reversed.

 

[Birdog]

Thanks for the insight fellas.

I hooked up the decoder with red on the left and black on the right, then switched them around and it really made no difference so I am going back to the NMRA standard, red on right black on left. Turns out the motor leads were swapped as well. The directional control was backwards so I swapped them and she now runs fine in the correct direction.

I really apreciate the help.

Have a great holiday!

Cheers!

[rrinker]

 Compounding the issue especially with many of the first generation diesels is that some railroads ran them one way, and others ran them in what you might think of as 'reverse'. At least on any of the Protos I have, they didn;t wire them differently per the prototype. My example, Reading ran GP7's long hood forward. In all 4 of my Protos, the are wired to run short hood forward based on the NMRA DC standard. They even have the crew figures in the cab facing the short hood side. But they DO have the decal for the F on the end of the long hood - so it's PAINTED properly.

 Some locos had dual controls, and ran either way, in equal amounts. Even so, there would be a Front or number 1 end marked per railroad rules, even if half the time it was actually the back based on the way the loco was moving.

              --Randy