Cab 1L for headlite flickering

AUX2 will toggle the headlight.

AUX1 8 is smoke off, AUX1 9 is smoke on.

This thread (Lionel Pennsy Semi-Scale 4-6-2) had:

http://www.lionel.com/media/se...ents/73-8089-250.pdf

Computers here will not give us the "Insert Link" guessing it is a flash player issue.

According to the CAB1-L manual (73-7155-250 page 8 and 10), the AUX 2 button turns headlights on and off.  It's been a while since I tried mine (I use DCS).

Yep!  That should do it for you no matter how old your TMCC engine happens to be.

Yep, tried Aux 2.  Off and then on. Still flickers. 

Lima   - thanks for the Owners Manual.

AND Robert Kratzer  - if you are reading this. I sent you my address but message was returned as your mailbox is FULL

My address:   Laurence Wener

         10 Prestwick Bay SE, Unit 3104

         Calgary, AB  T2Z0B3

         Canada

Thanks fella and again to Allan.

The flickering headlight usually means the engine is receiving a weak TMCC signal.

If you have other TMCC engines that are working O.K. this new to you engine may have an antenna problem. On the steam engines the handrails along the boiler are usually used as the antenna. Yours may be loose and not making a good connection inside the engine. Other threads and topics on this forum have addressed this weak signal issue.

Good luck with your engine.

Mark

Oops...I see you have been having these problems with another engine covered in another thread. Sorry to have repeated what has been already posted.

Mark

Question about GROUNDING.  Should I run a wire from the command base to a water pipe for heating the room. Is that a real ground for TMCC?

Absolutely NO.  The earth grounding is through the wallwart's U-ground pin.  If you connect the thumbscrew to earth ground, you will short out the TMCC signal.

If you are having signal problems, it is a good idea to use an ohmmeter to verify that the outer rail ISN'T connected to ground somewhere.

Thanks for the HEADS UP on that Dale.  I read that the Flickering headlight was a symptom of a bad ground , and I thought that I could ground it on a heating pipe.

Larry

Great news regarding the flickering headlights on 2 engines.

LIONEL just sent me an R A number to return the whole set

for repair or replacement.

So, hopefully in a month or my problem will be solved.

Thanks to EVERYBODY who offered some advice or help.

ground plane, not earth ground.

Thank you all.  Since Lionel sent me an R.A., I packaged up the car in the original 3 boxes and it it on the way to Ohio. Estimated 7 days shipping and 3 weeks to be looked at. I should have it back in May.

Larry, did you plug the 3-prong wall wart that powers the Command Base directly into a properly grounded outlet?  Plugging the Command Base into a power strip with surge protection built in OR into a wall outlet that is not well-grounded can ruin the TMCC signal.

Wall wart was originally plugged into a power strip with  NO Surge protection.

Then I plugged it DIRECTLY into a wall outlet, in 2 separate locations in the apartment.  I explained this to   LIONEL yesterday.  Without ANY further questions to me they issued the R.A.

It was noted earlier in my thread that this same problem was reported by other forumites and Lionel issued them an R A also.

There may be a problem in the Legacy command Cab 1L/Base 1L that is causing this problem. I also gave Lionel the model numbers of my 2 TMCC engines in case they thought the problem was in the engines.  Obviously, they did not.

I think you're hot on the trail now Larry, having two engines with the same issue starts to point to a common component.

Well Lionel said in their e mail there is a 3 week wait to get repairs done. It takes a week for the package to get to them. So hopefully, around

 the end of April they will be shipping it back to me.  Maybe even earlier.

Please let us know the result.

Lima -  well, Lionel received the Command lite set this morning, so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll know what is happening.

Do they actually repair boards and such there or just replace? Hopefully back to you in a week and then you can give us the issue resolved up update.

Well my Legacy Lite set is due back from Lionel on THURSDAY this week.  Their e mail did not state anything about what was wrong with it.

So, I'll hook it up when I get it and post the results here.

There may be a repair sheet in the box with the results, I got one with a Legacy set.

John  - got it back just now  -  Note enclosed from Lionel

Part Used for repair - 69002C104M -  CAP .1MFD 50V Ceramic Qty 1

Techs comments - Tuned Frequency - Tested.

Well, I'll hook it up later and let you know if It works for me or not.

Larry

Everything works fine except smoking. I have to have this looked at.

Well I hooked everything up and Lo and BeHold - Headlight works now. 

This 6-28023 is a really nice detailed engine but seems to be a little too BIG for my small layout.

Way to go Larry!

If you can't get that smoke unit working i can have a look at it for you.

Nice looking engine.

Rod

Larry, try reprogramming it with the TMCC ID, then with the RUN/PGM switch still in PGM, do the following.

Press: AUX1

Press: 4

See if that gets the smoke working.

John.  I'll give that a try after I buy some smoke fluid.

Thanks for all your help.

John, that didn't work. I think Rod is right in saying maybe smoke  wick?  is burnt or some thing else wrong.  Rod will come over in a few days and take a look at it.

In the meantime it runs nice, I lubed it and it sounds good too.

On my DCS Remote Commander trouble, Marios trains is going to have their tech guy call me this week about the no go problem. The MTH RS 3 works perfect on Rod's DCS layout.

If it's truly properly factory reset, it should work, that's all it takes.

Well John, we reset it again at Rods layout yesterday. Then I hooked up my MTH transformer and DCS Remote Commander and the engine started up in conventional.

That is the problem. It does not see the DCS signal from the remote commander.

Patricks trains had reset it and tested it before sending to me. So we are left with a problem DCS REMOTE Commander.   Marios Trains tech fella just phoned me. We ran over everything and he feels the REMOTE COMMANDER base unit is NOT working even though the green lite comes on.

That's not surprising, they're a pretty spartan controller.  The green light isn't the last word.