CAB 2 gone haywire

sphillyj posted:

Last night at the club while running my S2 Legacy trubine, my CAB2 started behaving very strangely. First, it did not take any commands. Turned it off, replaced the batteries, same thing. When I went to turn the dial for speed, the graph immediately went back to 0. However, I did notice that the red light was flashing very quickly on both the Legacy Base as well as the wifi unit, even when no commands were given on CAB2. Upon turning off the CAB2 the lights stopped flashing. I proceeded to use another CAB2 as well as the icab app and all seemed OK. My questions are: Has anyone experienced this behavior from their CAB2? If so, what was your solution if any? Is there a reset for the CAB2? Or, do I need to send back to Lionel for repair? Any and all help is appreciated. Even Matt was stumped on this one.

Jeff at AGHR in LA

Very possibly a stuck or malfunctioning direction / boost brake button.  Some folks have had success using canned air or plastic safe contact cleaner on these but sometimes not.  The fact that it goes to zero indicates to me that the brake functionality of the switch is sticking.

Thanks for the quick response Marty. I will check that out and give it a try on Saturday at the club.

Jeff

That happens if any key sticks, I just had that happen to the bell function.  I flipped the lever a bunch of times and sanity returned.  Same symptom, constant flashing light, that indicates a key is pressed.

Thanks John. It looks like i will be giving the CAB2 a thorough once over and see if sanity returns.

Jeff

Just an update. This past weekend I opened the remote and made sure all the boards were seated properly. Blew some air through it as well. Worked the train brake up and down. All worked for about an hour, then the remote went haywire again. So it's off to the Big L for repair.

Jeff

I just had a brand new remote speed wheel go crazy.  It started when I tried to enter a loco name.  It made no difference which direction I spun the big red wheel, the remote jumped erratically back and forth across the alphabet with no hope of control.  So, I tried to actually control a locomotive (all of the other buttons worked), no dice.  No evidence that the locomotive was receiving anything from the speed wheel.  As it was brand new the LHS was happy to replace the remote for me.

That's weird, I just experienced the same issue as SPHILLYJ - is this turning into an epidemic!

This is interesting. I have had the stuck/malfunctioning direction button on my Cab2 in the past. It was repaired by Lionel.

However I have been having issues installing LCS Sensor track and other components on our layout(that's a different story..in contact with Jon Z. When I get it sorted I will update the sensor track problem thread)

Yesterday I had this glitch where the Cab2 appeared locked out and as I tried to increase speed. The loco would start and then stop. The Cab2 showed that it was reducing speed automatically like it did with a stuck boost button. It was also shuting down the Legacy Powermaster. Like it had a short on the track except there was no short circuit. This would happen even if the Cab2 was set to address an engine and not the powermaster.

However the button is not stuck. I discovered it appears to be the LCS wifi box. The Orange light was flashing like mad on the Legacy base. I switched off the Cab2 so if it had a issue it would stop transmitting. However the orange light continued to flash in the same manner. I pulled the LCS DB9 wall wart to shut power to the LCS components and the orange light stopped flashing. Turned Cab2 back on and normal operation resumed.

It happened a coupe of times yesterday after I installed the Wifi box.

Nick

P.S. Running V1.6 firmware

Took the Cab 2 apart and blew some air into the back of direction control unit and re-assembled it.

Seems to work OK now.

Thanks for the useful tips.

Just an update on this. Lionel Service again has proved that they are prompt and efficient. Just got back my CAB 2 remote. Will test this weekend at the club to make sure all is in order.

Jeff

All working just fine. Thanks to Lionel for quick turn around.

Jeff