Sorry if this has been discussed previously but I was wondering if anyone has used, the Airwire T5000 to control the motor and sounds on the MTH Protosound 3 locomotives? The newer MTH engines run on DC, MTH’s own proprietary DCS system and DCC. I have a MTH F-7 consist and was wondering if there were any issues, limitations or problems installing battery power and using my Airwire throttles? Thanks!

John

How are you going to send the wireless AirWire commands to the loco? Have you figured that out?

The MTH loco only picks up signals from the rails.

Airwire only works wirelessly.

There are various deadrail setups…

Greg

Is there any way to access the MTH loco’s sounds if you to were to install an Airwire G3 decoder?

If the built-in decoder supports DCC, you could use the AirWire Converter instead. This board handles the wireless functions and provides a DCC output. You would just need to intercept the wires that currently go to the track pickups. I don’t know much about MTH, though, so this is generic advice.

If you don’t find a satisfactory answer here, Ray at rayman4449.com would probably know the answer.

Yeah, the thing I wanted make clear is that the MTH loco is NOT wireless, it has no wireless receiver.

(the wireless throttles communicate to a trackside unit called a TIU, which then puts the signals on the rails, which are not DCC, also the new support for a smart phone again communicates to a new special box called a WIU, which then does the magic)

So you need a wireless receiver, and the product from CVP is called the CONVRTR, it comes in various versions, but you should get the CONVRTR-60 or the CONVRTR-60X (depending on your antenna requirements).

You need a deadrail (that’s the generic term) system that will receive the wireless DCC commands AND also provide power to the track pickup wires.

This will all work. (space is tight inside the loco, but it can be done)

Greg

Thank you Greg and Eric for that useful information. I’ll check into the CONVRTR.

For sure, the advice(s) that Greg and and Eric gave is (are) spot on. I can say that with confidence for two reasons. The first goes without saying that they are two of the many gurus here at LSC that know and offer a wealth of knowledge. The second reason is from experience. I am now on my fourth MTH PS3 wireless conversion, all with great success. I have used the Airwire T5000 throttle to drive the Airwire Convrtr 60-X to send the DCC signal to the MTH decoder. I found that the 18.5 volt lithium ion battery works very well. I used a DPDT switch to select the inputs into the decoder to come from either the battery powered DCC Convrtr 60-X or track power to run conventional MTH DCS. When using the DCC mode you have access to all of the DCC cv’s so you can customize your lights, acceleration, etc as you would any other DCC loco. The lights, sounds and smoke are all controlled using buttons on the T5000. Ray Manley is definitely a great source and resource for g scale MTH products, upgrades and information. He has a list of all the T5000 key functions for the q. But to answer your original question…I have and it’s awesome. I will try to get out a video of my NS F-7 ABA. I put sound and smoke in each loco. Best of luck, Mark. Oh, one other thing. The Convertr 60-X generates some heat so I have installed a 40mm x 40mm 24 volt (as per Greg’s recomendation) can next to it. That keeps it nice and cool.

Thank you Mark for sharing your experience; very helpful. I’m going to give this a shot. You say that you use a DPDT switch to select between the DCC Convertr and the the DCS track power. Do you sometimes use the MTH DCS system instead of the DCC system or do you just like having the option to run on track power?

John Lyans

John, I have an indoor yard area (that connects to the deadrail outdoor layout) that I still have set up for DCS. Since the MTH decoders can now operate on both DCC and DCS I wanted to retain that capability. I think that having both options would make the loco more marketable if and when I should decide to sell it. One switch allows that. I wanted to leave the power skates in place but did not want them hanging up on any track irregularities so I use a black #2 X 1/2” screw into the bottom motor block cover to hold them about 1/16” above the top of the rail. Go for it. Mark