So I have a Base 3 as I'm sure lot's of you do, so I'll try and be brief. It's plugged in ,ground wire attached, lights all cycle . AP button is in the up position { not using my house wifi} and my phones Base 3 app tells me no base 3 available when trying to connect. Have watched countless videos and tried making sense of the manual. Your thoughts on what else to try.
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@DunningStation posted:So I have a Base 3 as I'm sure lot's of you do, so I'll try and be brief. It's plugged in ,ground wire attached, lights all cycle . AP button is in the up position { not using my house wifi} and my phones Base 3 app tells me no base 3 available when trying to connect. Have watched countless videos and tried making sense of the manual. Your thoughts on what else to try.
Did you point your smart phone to the Base3 AP under settings of the phone?
Helps also to know whether you are using Apple or Android.
What network is your iPhone connected to? In settings look under wifi.
@DunningStation posted:So I have a Base 3 as I'm sure lot's of you do, so I'll try and be brief. It's plugged in ,ground wire attached, lights all cycle . AP button is in the up position { not using my house wifi} and my phones Base 3 app tells me no base 3 available when trying to connect. Have watched countless videos and tried making sense of the manual. Your thoughts on what else to try.
Did we get anywhere with this?
Its just an Apple I phone. I went to the App store, downloaded the Base 3 app, and tried to connect. According to the directions that came with the base, that was all I needed to do. Obviously there's more.
@DunningStation posted:Its just an Apple I phone. I went to the App store, downloaded the Base 3 app, and tried to connect. According to the directions that came with the base, that was all I needed to do. Obviously there's more.
You have to actually connect to the wi-fi network the Base 3 is transmitting. You phone by default is not using it.
Go to "Settings" on your phone and into the wi-fi settings. Find the network in the list (it will have Base3 in the name) and connect to it.
Now open the Cab3 app and try to connect.
I would suspect by default 99% of the phone hop onto the home WiFi which is why it's an advantage to get Base3 joined to the home network. You definitely have to have your phone connect to the Base3 WiFi when in AP mode but I would suggest when you are comfortable get it on your home network so it's always available without changing networks.
I'm with Marty here, having to screw around with the phone each time to run trains and then again after to restore network connectivity is a pain. Both my LCS WiFi and the MTH WiFi here connect through my home network. The apps are always "connected" to the correct network without any reconfiguration.
Thanks Sean, went into my phones settings and made the connection. Other than this, everything I have is conventional. Now have to read up on connecting my switches. As of now when I change the direction of one, they all change.
As someone with very limited computer skills can you give me an idiots walk through on connecting my base3 to my homes wifi ?
When I find Lionel Base 3 in my wifi settings it has " Unsecured Network" under it. Does that mean it won't allow me to connect?
@DunningStation posted:When I find Lionel Base 3 in my wifi settings it has " Unsecured Network" under it. Does that mean it won't allow me to connect?
No, it just means you are connecting to an unsecure network (no password required). It works fine.
Well my phone all of a sudden will not connect to base 3 in network mode. I checked the IP addresses on PC (vis base 3 utility) and looks fine. The PC connects but not phone?? Could it be the sept 24 update? Very frustrating, I spent way too much time playing beta tester for Lionel....
@DMBX posted:Well my phone all of a sudden will not connect to base 3 in network mode. I checked the IP addresses on PC (vis base 3 utility) and looks fine. The PC connects but not phone?? Could it be the sept 24 update? Very frustrating, I spent way too much time playing beta tester for Lionel....
There is nothing that I know of in the update that would cause your phone not connecting and I haven't seen at least here any other complaint about connecting.
Is your phone connecting to your home network?
What phone are you you using? Did your phone update recently that might have caused an issue? What all have you tried?
My phone is S22 ultra, no issues with it or recent updates. It does connect in AP mode, but not in network mode. Honestly, I am pretty tech savy and have spent hours on the base 3 and from connection issues, throttle not working, painstaking roster upload one by one, no transformer (tpc) control.....so far I feel Lionel should be paying me for Beta testing their amazing new system!
.....and it worked last week so no clue what changed, but something did.
@DMBX posted:.....and it worked last week so no clue what changed, but something did.
Odd indeed. Especially since your PC is connecting. I don't really have any suggestions other than to recheck the App settings. I have an Apple device so I am not familiar with Android devices. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
Well I finally got the base to connect after contacting lionel (they basically quoted manual with no insight) and powering off my router, clearing the WPS info, and using the Base 3 app on my pc to get the new IP address info. I really have no idea what the issue was?? I did learn that after 1st connecting the base 3 to my PC in AP mode, then switching to network mode it generates a new IP address for the cab3 app to use. I somehow suspect this action was not happening after the update. Lionel did not say this but hinted updates may require multiple attempts to reconnect. Bottom line this took many more hours than it should have and I am left wondering what other 'bugs' are out there lurking??? I am happy its working, but not loving the hours I spent fussing with this🙄
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...and 100% agree with Marty and John, you want to run this system in network mode. Fussing to disconnect your phone from home network to base 3 every time you run trains would be tiresome and basically take internet functions of your phone unecessarily away. Out of curiousity does anyone know how network mode works? We know both the phone (or pc/tablet) and base 3 are connected to home wifi, so does the app act another stand alone access point at the same time? I do suspect so because if you switch to say a website, the base 3 connection seems to disconnect. Does bluetooth play any role in this connection aside from obviously running BT equipment. Just a few wonders having doing a bit of a deep dive into the connections.
@DMBX posted:...and 100% agree with Marty and John, you want to run this system in network mode. Fussing to disconnect your phone from home network to base 3 every time you run trains would be tiresome and basically take internet functions of your phone unecessarily away. Out of curiousity does anyone know how network mode works? We know both the phone (or pc/tablet) and base 3 are connected to home wifi, so does the app act another stand alone access point at the same time? I do suspect so because if you switch to say a website, the base 3 connection seems to disconnect. Does bluetooth play any role in this connection aside from obviously running BT equipment. Just a few wonders having doing a bit of a deep dive into the connections.
No, the base is just web services- a connection listening point in this mode. The app is clearly connecting over an API (Application Programming Interface) protocol between the app on your phone and the base on the same network. Further, because your home router has both a firewall and performs NAT (Network Address Translation) that's why your neighbor on his internet cannot see your devices on your private- keyword there- home network like the base.
Bluetooth is not used in this mode at all.
Further, it might be at the OS level on the phone- to conserve battery life- or might be at the app, but when you focus away from the app (example using a web browser on the phone) then the networking function may be pausing or halting the app from processing and thus to the base- the connection is lost while the app is not actively being used. This would tend to indicate the API has some level of keep alive and reporting status during the session.
If you really wanted to dig- break out wireshark.
@DMBX posted:...and 100% agree with Marty and John, you want to run this system in network mode. Fussing to disconnect your phone from home network to base 3 every time you run trains would be tiresome and basically take internet functions of your phone unecessarily away. Out of curiousity does anyone know how network mode works? We know both the phone (or pc/tablet) and base 3 are connected to home wifi, so does the app act another stand alone access point at the same time? I do suspect so because if you switch to say a website, the base 3 connection seems to disconnect. Does bluetooth play any role in this connection aside from obviously running BT equipment. Just a few wonders having doing a bit of a deep dive into the connections.
The BASE3 shouldn't disconnect if you use another app, it should remain running in the background.
.....oh and one final note, my TPC 300 (set to TR1 address) does not funtion with cab 3, lionel knows this and is working on that they tell me. A workaround was to readdress to EN1, then the boost and halt funtions work.....ok not a huge deal but another annoyance as I am sure many use a TPC, powermaster, zw etc to control power and run anything conventional.
Thank you for clarifying👍👍
The release notes from the latest App update...
The Base3 is not disconnecting but rather the Cab3 App.
Bugs still to be worked on (high-level only):
Ah ok, I think you are right on mantaining wifi, as I note that if cab3 is in background (say while I use another app) it does seem to disconnect, and take 2-3 seconds when cab3 is active to reconnect, so it would be nice if it remained connected. I have not experienced any of the network latency Lionel describes as possible.....I think alot would have to be running for that to happen. All in all happy with Base/cab3.....but it really was not a plug and play transition.....will still keep my cab2 for sure, at least as backup!😉
Unless your wireless network is heavily used, I can't imagine any significant latency running through the network. I know I certainly don't see any with either the Lionel WiFi on my Legacy system or the MTH WiFi through the TIU. Both are connected through my main network router. Actually, it's a mesh network, so there's actually extra latency introduced with the link between mesh points, still no problem.
If Lionel were really concerned about Latency, they'd use some of the faster network channels and not just the 2.4ghz band. 
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Unless your wireless network is heavily used, I can't imagine any significant latency running through the network. I know I certainly don't see any with either the Lionel WiFi on my Legacy system or the MTH WiFi through the TIU. Both are connected through my main network router. Actually, it's a mesh network, so there's actually extra latency introduced with the link between mesh points, still no problem.
If Lionel were really concerned about Latency, they'd use some of the faster network channels and not just the 2.4ghz band.
Dave addressed this previously. He stated they never saw an issue but it's more of a disclaimer.
Great info, thanks to all. So one last curiosity - if I had not bought the base3, could I have bought a Lionel wifi module and the cab3 app could connect to that?
@MartyE posted:Dave addressed this previously. He stated they never saw an issue but it's more of a disclaimer.
Makes sense, I've worked on a lot of wireless networks and never had latency issues with anything but a very overloaded office network that was running on an outdated 2.4ghz router.
Nowadays, most home network high bandwidth users are running on higher speed channels, and the routers have multiple channels. We stream two HD TV's on our network, when both are playing streaming movies, I don't notice any difference in my Internet speed test, that's a decent end-to-end test since it's gigabit Internet.
@DMBX posted:Great info, thanks to all. So one last curiosity - if I had not bought the base3, could I have bought a Lionel wifi module and the cab3 app could connect to that?
Cab3 does not work with the Legacy Base. However, the iCab App does work with Base3.
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