Cruise Commander, anyone seen this problem before?

Hi Chris I'm no pro but what I learned from the members on this forum is you need to set the feature code again. That looks like the problem.

Alex

Why is it necessary to set the Feature Code?
The Cruise Commander uses the serial data from the R2LC receiver to detect the throttle
settings. This serial data signal is dependent on the feature code. If this is not properly set,
the loco will not respond to throttle commands and may even enter into conventional mode
and rocket down the rails!

Setting the feature code seemed to help the high speed starts, in fact the top speed is only about half of full speed now (I can actually live with that)

I still get the random halts until I roll the wheel again, sometimes it goes a few inches, other time a lap around the track then halt. Oh well one down one to go

If you've checked to insure connections, and you've set the feature code properly?  Is this a Cruise Commander or Cruise Commander M?  I'm assuming from the video that this engine did not have TMCC, so this would be the Cruise Commander.

Have you talked to Ken at ERR?  You could have a problem unit.  I have six or seven locomotives with the Cruise Commander and a like amount with the Cruise Commander M, none of them have ever had that issue.

Try running in conventional, if runs OK you are probably loosing serial data. If you have another radio board, try it. This is after you have done a re-program and feature set.

Bill

Its a Cruise Commander not a Cruise Commander M. Have tried the different Feature sets for the Diesels. Hasn't cured the stopping or the lack of higher speeds

Seems to run OK in conventional. Jon Lionel gave me a couple things to try. The guy who installed it for me has a few more boards, but is off on vacation this week

Is there a Reset to default code for these boards? I tired looking in the manual and didn't see one.

Just a shot in the dark here, have you checked over the wiring carefully?  It sounds like the motor drive is coming and going.  Make sure the R2LC is firmly seated on the Cruise Commander board as well.

I ran the engine in conventional mode last night as started seeing the same power cut, however it was more subtle and never completely lost power. I can only assume that when in command mode the power cut was enough to reset the Cruise Commander to step 0 but in conventional mode it just regained power

More to follow, going to take the shell off tonight and start poking around

Chris

 When it stops, will another function work, horn or bell. I doubt if it will help, but try "aux 1+0.

Bill

well the engine is bare bones, no horn, bell, smoke, whistle, Its an old K-Line club Kennecott engine. A sentimental favorite since Kennecott is about 40 miles south of us

You're saying you don't have the RailSounds Commander installed, right?

Try AUX2 and see if that toggles the headlight on and off.

No sound, will try they AUX2 tonight

Cruise commanders seem to be fussy about having a good ground from the outside rails. You can try cleaning the wheels, cleaning the track, and maybe even adding a wire from the truck to the engine frame or circuit ground.

Many times we concentrate on the center rail pickup, but the Cruise Commander wants us to concentrate on the outside rails.

well the mystery continues. Tonight I found that if I rum the engine cab forward, it will run and run and run, doesn't seem to have any problem at all. If I reverse it and run nose forward the stopping happens again. Even when I rotated the engine 180 degrees it continued to be a problem. Cab Forward runs fine, nose forward stops

I also noticed that when it does stop, it definitely goes back to step 0 although the Legacy display does not change (remains at step 50) I assume this is because there is no two-way communication between the engine and the Legacy system. Legacy has no way of knowing the train has reset to Step 0. If I turn the velocity wheel from 50 to 51 it starts creeping again. If I rotate it back so the display shows Zero and then go to step one, same thing acceleration as 50 > 51

I love troubleshooting a fun way to explore the system

The symptoms seem to suggest you're losing power running in one direction, that would point to the power being dropped momentarily in one direction.  Does that engine have a common connection from the trucks to the frame?  Perhaps adding a wire to make sure you have a solid connection from the trucks to the Cruise Commander for power?  Obviously, I wouldn't ignore the pickups either.

If all the wiring and pickups are solid with no possibility of shorts or loose connections, I'd be thinking of some problem with the Cruise Commander board.

I believe I'm having ths issue on the same board that is going back tommorrow. I don't know if is the same problem. But, the engine has a major problem in reverse.....

Check the motors "one by one"  to the board...still a problem..Replaced R@LC..

Heatsink get very hot....runs in one direction-great -run in reverse blinks cw80-blinks

rear headlight...It's gotta be the board..

The trucks can bind in one direction.  I've had a truck on an MTH Genesis that had significant resistance to the motor rotation in one direction and none in the other.  It turned out to be wear on the gear, but a new motor worked well enough that I still run it.

Yes, but I believe these are the cheapo can motors in the truck horizontally.  So jamming in only one direction is much more difficult since these are spur gears not worms.  Probably nylon also.  G

Did you check the screw that goes into the heatsink for length. It is possibel that it was hitting a service mount resistor and it finally cracked it. I had a unit that I accidentally

installed the wrong screw. I had cut one down and picked the wrong one off the table.

The unit seemed to run fine in foward...it ran bad in reverse..stopping  pulling the test cw80 into overload.

Hmm I do not remember what we did to fix this, Jim Sandman came up with something.