Just got these brand new in the box, the one unit is fine. But the other starts up with engine sound immediately upon track power up. It programs fine, but has no horn or bell sounds. Any idea what the issue might be?
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IIRC these are an A-A set where the trailing unit automatically starts in reverse? If so only the "Lead" unit has horn and bell sounds.
Have you attempted to run them individually by their assigned number? I think then the bell/horn sounds work.
Tom,
These are not brand new even if you just pulled them out of the box for the very first time. They're coming up on 25 years old.
According to the parts lists found on lionealsupport.com both units (6-14533, Road No. #9744 and 6-14534 Road No. #9745) have sound. Both use a motherboard that has separate sound and power boards plugged into it.
Frequently when I have no-sound issues with units this old it's because the boards aren't making good contact with the motherboard. If you're comfortable with the process remove the shell on the unit that has no horn/bell, and carefully remove each board and replace it, one at a time. Re-seating them may be all you need. However, be careful when you do this to make sure that you get them aligned precisely the way they came off because the connectors have no "keys" to prevent a mistake.
As @BobbyD implied its also possible that one of them has no horn/bell sounds because it's intended to be used as the trailing 'A' unit. In this case only the leading one might have these two sounds.
Mike
You set up both engines with the same engine number ( don’t need to use a train number), the rear A unit starts in reverse and has engine sounds but no horn/bell. Should not have to program either engine unless you want a different engine number; they are all set to go out of the box set at engine 1.
It sounds like your trailing A is not getting the TMCC signal, could be an antenna problem (came loose). Reseating the boards is also a good idea before getting new ones.
This is my 2nd set of these. The other set has horn & bell out of both units. Yes I know they are old. Its just odd that it starts up with engine Sound upon track power, but responds to commands like smoke on & off and direction. But no horn or bell. Thanks for the advice. Ill try reseating boards
@tom21pa posted:This is my 2nd set of these. The other set has horn & bell out of both units. Yes I know they are old. Its just odd that it starts up with engine Sound upon track power, but responds to commands like smoke on & off and direction. But no horn or bell. Thanks for the advice. Ill try reseating boards
The horn and bell sounds only work in both units when the units are not operated as a lash up. Again, have you ever operated them as individual units?
The horn and bell sounds will only work in the lead unit of the lash-up. Since you have the engine sounds I'd be surprised if it was a board seating issue.
@BobbyD posted:The horn and bell sounds only work in both units when the units are not operated as a lash up. Again, have you ever operated them as individual units?
The horn and bell sounds will only work in the lead unit of the lash-up. Since you have the engine sounds I'd be surprised if it was a board seating issue.
The engine sounds start as soon as track power is applied. But it still responds to tmcc commands, forward and reverse, coupler. Just not to whistle and bell. I swapped the sound boards from bad unit to a good unit and it fired up fine in good unit, then I put sound boards from good unit in bad unit and it just started up when track power applied, thinking the motherboard is bad.
Tom,
I have the same set of Sharks. I programmed both units with the same engine number so both units have bell and horn sounds. If you set them up using two different engine numbers and run as a train the rear unit will not have bell or horn sounds but will have all the engine sounds. I like hearing the bell and horn from both units, sort of like stereo so I will continue to use the same engine number and run as a engine not a train,
JohnB
I have the A-B-A setup of these.
Question: If you just put the trailing unit on the tracks, can you command the horn/bell using the TMCC/Legacy remote? If so, then I'd suggest using a PLCC chip extractor to reseat the two Railsounds chips on the sound board. Also, reseating all the boards is a good idea as well.
