CAB2... Kaput?

How old are the rechargeable batteries?  They have a limited lifespan.

Have you tried some regular batteries as a test?

@RickO posted:

How old are the rechargeable batteries?  They have a limited lifespan.

Have you tried some regular batteries as a test?

Good point those batteries when they are passed their user life will go dead very fast.

Yup, tried 'new' EverReady rechargeable...1.42-1.47 and some oldish regular Duracell's... 1.38-1.42

The EverReady's that were in the CAB2 are about 2 years old.  The new EverReady's were purchased at the same time but have never been used and were just removed from the packaging.  The original re-chargeable batteries lasted 8 years.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

This came out of nowhere today.   Every time the CAB2 is booted it turns on for maybe a second (I get a quick glimpse of the last train that I ran, the Santa Fe F3... then, the CAB2 immediately turns off.  Batteries are fully charged.

Next, I login to my Lionel account.  I see no purchase/transaction history... what the heck happened to all of that info?    I guess I'll call Lionel tomorrow to see if I can get an RMA.   I've had this unit for around ten years (purchased from an authorized dealer & forum sponsor).  Is the CAB2 still being serviced?  I pre-ordered the Base3 over a year ago from the same dealer.  Kinda makes Blunami a lot more interesting at the moment.

Yes they are still repairing them until the current parts supply runs out. 

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Kinda makes Blunami a lot more interesting at the moment.

Don't bother getting your Cab-2 fixed, even if it's at no charge.  Just suck it up and do the conversion to Blunami.

Many of us would like to know what it entails, how much it will cost, and how it typically turns out.

Perhaps you can be a guinea pig?

Mike

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

This came out of nowhere today.   Every time the CAB2 is booted it turns on for maybe a second (I get a quick glimpse of the last train that I ran, the Santa Fe F3... then, the CAB2 immediately turns off.  Batteries are fully charged.

Next, I login to my Lionel account.  I see no purchase/transaction history... what the heck happened to all of that info?    I guess I'll call Lionel tomorrow to see if I can get an RMA.   I've had this unit for around ten years (purchased from an authorized dealer & forum sponsor).  Is the CAB2 still being serviced?  I pre-ordered the Base3 over a year ago from the same dealer.  Kinda makes Blunami a lot more interesting at the moment.

How about a full reset, there is a button rear of unit under the upper right screw marked reset?

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Don't bother getting your Cab-2 fixed, even if it's at no charge.  Just suck it up and do the conversion to Blunami.

Many of us would like to know what it entails, how much it will cost, and how it typically turns out.

Perhaps you can be a guinea pig?

Mike

LOL!!!  I've been going to grab a Blunami board to play around with anyway.  This just made it happen a little sooner.

@ThatGuy posted:

How about a full reset, there is a button rear of unit under the upper right screw marked reset?

Yup, tried that... no dice.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

LOL!!!  I've been going to grab a Blunami board to play around with anyway.  This just made it happen a little sooner.

One is a good start, but the concern is really over the entire roster.  Converting my entire collection will not happen.  There's not enough money in the budget to do so.

If things end up such that it needs to happen just to run them, I'll be exiting the hobby, and quickly, even if it's at pennies on the dollar at that point.

Mike

Yeah, my paltry inventory of 30 locos wouldn't be particularly inexpensive to convert... probably, 8k to 10K with all the fixin's, of course.

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Don't bother getting your Cab-2 fixed, even if it's at no charge.  Just suck it up and do the conversion to Blunami.

Mike if he wanted to run trains with a touch screen device, he could do that now without buying Blunami    If he wanted to rip everything out, folks should be aware that there are alternatives like AirWire and Ring Engineering's RailPro that offer a physical controller.  Both of those controllers have a knob with detents like the CAB-2.  So I would like to know how THOSE turn out and what it costs.

Dennis you wouldn't have to convert your entire fleet or change anything else.  If you use a "helper circuit" to rectify and condition the track AC (which is also required for Blunami), you could run the converted loco alongside of everything else.

All that being said, if the batteries don't bring your CAB-2 back to life, I would send it to Lionel for repair.  I plan to keep mine as long as possible!

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Yeah, my paltry inventory of 30 locos wouldn't be particularly inexpensive to convert... probably, 8k to 10K with all the fixin's, of course.

Give Lionel a shot they have been very good with the repairs , full conversation is for another day when Lionel is gone. Also one last try put them batteries in and hold the power button and let it cycle once.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Yeah, my paltry inventory of 30 locos wouldn't be particularly inexpensive to convert... probably, 8k to 10K with all the fixin's, of course.

Thats about right. Lets think about it.

$8000 or $2 to drop a package off at Fedex.

$8000…$2?, $8000…$2?, $8000…$2?

Oh yeah, how many hours to do the conversions?

Tough choice.

Pete

LOL!!!!!  The choice was made in the first post... I'm calling to get an RMA tomorrow.  The other consideration that creeps into the old cranium when something like this happens is with the passing of time and the future/current availability of boards to do repairs?  I suppose that comes down to who one thinks has the best product and more importantly the legs to still be in business over the long haul... be it ERR, Blunami/SoundTrax or some other contender,

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

LOL!!!!!  The choice was made in the first post... I'm calling to get an RMA tomorrow.  The other consideration that creeps into the old cranium when something like this happens is with the passing of time and the future/current availability of boards to do repairs?  I suppose that comes down to who one thinks has the best product and more importantly the legs to still be in business over the long haul... be it ERR, Blunami/SoundTrax or some other contender,

Think about it another way, how many years did you use this before you first failure? No worries…….

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Don't bother getting your Cab-2 fixed, even if it's at no charge.  Just suck it up and do the conversion to Blunami.

Yep, there's advice that I advise him to ignore.

Called Lionel this morning... RA# & FedEx mailing Label Received within minutes.  Dug the #990 box and shipping carton out, packaged everything up... and, I'm off to FedEx.

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Called Lionel this morning... RA# & FedEx mailing Label Received within minutes.  Dug the #990 box and shipping carton out, packaged everything up... and, I'm off to FedEx.

Great keep us updated, Lionel will get it done it it can be…….another 20 years from now you can worry about it again……LMAO

@Dennis-LaRock posted:

Called Lionel this morning... RA# & FedEx mailing Label Received within minutes.  Dug the #990 box and shipping carton out, packaged everything up... and, I'm off to FedEx.

You're doing better than me.  Lionel Service said that they would be sending an RMA for my dead Cab-2 base, last week.  Crickets since.

My Blunami-controlled Weaver Baldwin Shark runs just fine on the same track as my TMCC locomotives.  Basically, I'm converting my several 1990s conventional-control locos to Blunami.  I don't get the objection to tablets and smartphones as controllers, but to each his own.

Karl,  Did you get them on the phone?  I called at 8:59amET. and went through the 'our menu has changed' BS then they picked right up.  I spoke with them for a minute or two. They then sent me the case # at 9:03, RA at 9:04 and the Mailing Label at 9:06.   Give it another go!

@KarlDL posted:

My Blunami-controlled Weaver Baldwin Shark runs just fine on the same track as my TMCC locomotives.  Basically, I'm converting my several 1990s conventional-control locos to Blunami.  I don't get the objection to tablets and smartphones as controllers, but to each his own.

Karl,

If you have a problem with Lionel taking a few days longer than you desire then you need to send a message.  Stop buying their stuff.

It seems like your collection only has a few locomotives in it.  If so then conversion to Blunami would work out well.  You're on your way to solving all of your problems.   However, most of those of us who have many in our collections aren't in a position have the cash necessary to invest in such a change.

Next, I'm one of those that object to tablets and phones as control devices.  Since you, and so many others, don't "get it" those of us who object haven't made our points clear enough.

   1.) A touchscreen is a poor means for controlling anything that requires fast action, especially moving objects

   2.) A touchscreen is not prototypical, probably because of this point No.1

Why do think that 1:1 Scale remote controls don't use the touchscreen method?  In the real world, with full size equipment, it's not safe.  I know that we don't really have a safety issue with our miniatures at 1:48 but wrecking a very expensive model because you couldn't stop it in time to avoid an accident is almost as important.

In the end remember this:  They're taking something important away.  We have an obligation to challenge this.

If it's not important to you then just wait until the next thing to be taken away is announced.  Sooner or later they'll hit one of your hot buttons too.

Mike

Mike,

Thank you for explaining why you don't like virtual surfaces for control purposes.  I'm not attempting to convince anyone of their virtues ... just noting that I am OK using them, as one of several control schemes.

My p/o/v is that Blunami is an interesting alternative command control scheme that can coexist with DCS and TMCC on the same layout, far better than does "conventional".  It is not a substitute for DCS and/or TMCC.   And it makes no sense to me to replace DCS or TMCC with Blunami.

As for the reaction time matter, my go-to emergency controls are the block power toggle switches of my layout's control panel, not any remote.

The vast majority of my locomotives are TMCC or Legacy - and will stay so configured.  Of the several pre-DCS/TMCC engines I have, the larger ones are getting ERR TMCC upgrades and the medium to smaller ones are getting Blunami upgrades.

--Karl