Boy am I at wit's end. I have been struggling all day to get my Legacy F3 set (38707 and 38710) to work with my CAB-2. I have not had a problem getting other locos programmed (including a TMCC Cab Forward, a Legacy Big Boy, and a Legacy diesel switcher) but there is something peculiar about this F3 set.
My current problem is that I can't get my 38710 non-powered A unit to respond to any commands from my CAB-2, including things such as opening couplers, and responding to a "change engine ID" sequence (Engine, engine number you want, Set, with the PROG/RUN switch in PROG of course.)
I had all kinds of trouble getting my powered A unit to accept a new engine number, but it finally worked when I also turned on the Odyssey switch (inside the loco.) I suspect this was a random thing because I went through the programming and reset sequence a dozen times, with Odyseey on and off at times, trying every combination of powering up each device in different orders etc. I also removed the shell and confirmed that the switches were working and there were no apparent loose wires etc. Anyway it FINALLY accepted itself as engine 80 and is working perfectly. But its behavior was very sporadic up until that point. I believe I also may have loaded the orange programming module for that loco into CAB-2 before it finally saw the "assign new ID" command. Is that a necessary step? Because they don't provide the orange programming fob for non-powered units (although I understand I could load the one for the powered A unit and then just assign it a different number...???)
I'm using a 180-watt Powerhouse with a Legacy Powermaster and have it programmed as Train 99, and it works fine and is delivering just over 18vac to the track. The switches are set properly and the green light is solid.
When I have ONLY my non-powered F3 A unit on the track, and power up the track with the A unit switch in PROG, it behaves exactly the same as if I power up in RUN mode. That is, when I manually push the train, the lights change and the smoke fans speed up.
But there doesn't seem to be anything I can do to get the unit to respond to any command from my CAB-2. I have repeatedly tried to assign various engine numbers to no avail, and tried operating the couplers to Engine 1 as that should have been the default. And even the sequence to "Reprogram to restore features" as described in the criminally incomplete manual on page 17.
One thing I am confused about is: how is this "reprogram to restore features" procedure any different than that used to assign a new engine ID? Perhaps I'm missing something important ;-) Aside from turning off the track power for 10 seconds right after assigning the ID and pressing Set... which I've done anyway in the course of trying to get any sort of response. Generally if I'm trying to assign a new ID, I power up the track with the RUN/PROG switch already in the PROG position.
I'm assuming that since this unit does not have sound, that the lights will flash in response to a recognized "change engine ID" command coming from CAB-2.
Is there anything known to be flakey about this generation of Legacy F3? Is it possible there is a signal problem, such as my Legacy base being too close to my Powerhouse or Powermaster, or ??? Although remember everything works perfectly with i.e. my Legacy switcher. I've got my power hooked up to a simple loop of O-54 MTH Scaletrax.
Kindly suggest anything that comes to mind, so I can try it out before throwing myself off of a bridge ;-)
Thanks in advance for any help you may offer!
Randy
