Hello, I have a 2014 vision line Big Boy that is having issues communicating to the tender. It had been working when suddenly the chuff stopped, the whistle does not work, and the backup light and coupler do not function either. It seems as if the engine is not providing any data to the tender. The background steam sounds and blowoff sound also start immediately upon applying power.
The engine will take some commands, and will run forward and back, and the stack smoke works. The lighting also turns on and off with aux2.
Lee
Lee, Sorry to hear about your issues.
Here is some clarification for others that may see this thread. Some of this is repeating what others have mentioned.
The early (2014) Vision Line Big Boys have three separate smoke units.
1) The main stack unit is a dual smoke unit where one side is tied to one stack and the other side is tied to the other stack. The fan motors alternate with the "chuff-chuff". This is not prototypical and Lionel did not do this on future releases. When the shroud cover is placed over the stacks, a small magnet disables this alternating feature and the two main smoke fan motors work in unison.
2) The whistle steam smoke unit is a smaller sized single smoke unit. This is located very near the main smoke unit.
3) The blow-down smoke unit is located near the rear of the engine. The fill for this unit is under the dome cover.
One of the issues with this engine, is smoke fluid from the blow-down smoke unit can leak onto the main control board and cause it to fail. The blow-down smoke unit is located right above the main RCMC board. Do not overfill the blow-down "smoke" unit!
When this engine is placed on the track without the tender, you will be able to hear the whistle sounds, the chuff, front coupler sound, bell, change in direction, etc. from the speaker located in the engine. (You would also hear some of these same sounds in the tender if attached.) This gives the engine and tender a much better sound overall. With just the engine, you will not hear the cab chatter or tower sounds. I did check and you will hear the water filling from the engine speaker. I did not check the coal loading sound.
There should be no "steam" coming from the whistle unless the whistle is pressed on the hand-held controller.
Here are things to check as others have mentioned -
1. Do you get sounds when just the engine is on the track operating by itself?
2. If so, do you hear the chuff as the engine moves?
3. The main smoke unit fans will alternate from one stack to the other in sync with the chuff sound. Much like a "chuff-chuff, chuff-chuff", etc. They will sync at times to simulate the multiple steam chests. (John mentioned this in his post also.)
4. Do the cab lights go out when the engine starts to move?
5. Do the ground/work lights go out at speed step 23?
I am guessing this engine was working correctly and then something happened and that the original boards are/were installed. As you read through this, remember the RCMC boards are not the same for different versions of this "same" engine.
Hope this helps in some way.