Cruise Commander M FULL SPEED ONLY?

Reply to " the only thing not plug and play was the wire that needed to be connected to the motherboard for the serial data signal. I soldered the wire on as per the position noted in the manual. "

Your symptoms kind of describes no serial data getting to cruise board.  The serial wire from your ERR Cruise M board J4 connector needs to connect to serial connection (or equivalent) of the R2LC.  How did you confirm you actually got on serial pin on the motherboard?  See linked diagram for the R2LC board and it shows Pin 24 as serial which is opposite and across from Pin 1.  The R2LC Pin 1 is unique because it has square solder pad. and all other pins are round.  Find the corner pin on the R2LC board that is square (pin 1) and confirm you soldered to opposite and across (Pin 24) from that on your motherboard.

R2LC Pinouts

There are some environments where the IR tether opto input on the serial loads down the serial data and causes the CC-M not to see the serial data.  I've had to add a buffer circuit for several locomotives for that issue to lower the load on the R2LC serial data line.

If the serial data is connected properly and it's programmed correctly, try disconnecting the IR drawbar connector and see if the issue goes away.  If so, below is what you need.

The cruise M has a bug that shows itself occasionally. It seems to happen when the track power is ramped up from a chopped wave transformer. The radio board ends up in command mode and the Cruise M ends up in conventional mode.

You might try this. With the engine on the track, advance the power to full. Then take the direction button on the transformer and hold it down for ten seconds, then release it. Note: not the direction button on the remote. It must the the direction button on the transformer. If the radio board and the CCM boot up at the same time with a full sinusoidal waveform, it usually runs OK.

If your control system uses a TPC, then boot the loco up with AUX1, 9. That will put out a sinusoidal waveform.

Well Steims was correct, I did have the wire in wrong location. I moved the wire to the mother board square pad which matches the square pad on the R2LC. However it would seem the four or five split seconds of testing with the wire attached incorrectly may have damaged the Cruise board, even with the wire in the correct location and after reprogramming for the n+100th time, it still just runs away. Steims you got me one step closer and I cannot thank  you enough for that.

John I removed the tender from the track, and had to use a polar express tender as a dummy, without it the drawbar wanted to drag on the center rail. No such luck after correcting the wiring mistake. Would removing the tender be enough or do I need to actually unplug the connector for the IR tether?

Roy, my layout is run from a ZW-L in command mode. I have to turn up the voltage with the throttle maybe this is the cause. I will switch it back to conventional in the morning and test this theory with the direction button. I will try your advice in the morning.

Thank you to all you gentlemen for your assistance.

Phoenix, please re-read my post regarding pin position for serial data.  It should be on round pin (solder pad) #24.  This is diagonally opposed to the square pin/pad #1.  The square pad #1 is only called out as a point of reference and not a point of connection. The link above maps out all the R2LC pins and what each does. 

You may have damaged the Cruise board. Pins 1 and 2 go to the center rail so you applied 18-20 volts AC to a point designed for a 5 v DC pulse train.

Pete

That board is almost certainly history if you connected the serial data input to track power!  The serial data is on pin 24, not pin 1!  The instructions with the Cruise Commander M are pretty clear on which pin to connect to serial data.

Ah well then, this raises two new points. Number the first, boy did I ever just screw this up. For the second though, pin 24 was where I originally had the wire installed and it all started with the running away behavior.

Either way it's likely the cruise board is toast. I'm just gonna accept defeat and put the original boards back in.

if you want you can send in the board back to us on your dime. I can test it. some times reprogramming the board recovers it back and usually the resister takes the 18v from track power and blows before getting to the prom. 

I am really impressed by the new ERR Support and ownership.   Thanks Robert for offering to provide assistance by checking out the board for Pheonixx. 

That's Customer Service, nice touch!   May not be able to solve this problem, but they're sure giving it a good shot!

Robert, I am very thankful for your help! Please post here or email me ( Phoenixx1012@gmail.com ) the shipping address and  how you prefer it marked eg. Attn: Robert, and I'll have it at the post office first thing tomorrow morning! 

Thanks again to everyone else who has helped!

Phoenixx101 posted:

Roy, my layout is run from a ZW-L in command mode. I have to turn up the voltage with the throttle maybe this is the cause. I will switch it back to conventional in the morning and test this theory with the direction button. I will try your advice in the morning.

Nope. My post was misinterpreted. The whole thing is done in COMMAND mode, not in conventional mode. The object is to boot up both the radio board and the cruise commander at the same time and with a sinusoidal wave form.

It may be a moot point now, as the board is bad. After Robert repairs it, if it still exhibits the same symptoms, you can try my suggestion.

Hmm, interesting enough I have the exact same engine.  Did the Cruise Commander M upgrade as provided.  Double checked the serial data was properly connected before powering up.  Then went through normal programming even though I didn't change the radio board.  And I got the same response...engine took off at first step.  Double checked everything...all good.  Put the old commander back in to make sure everything else was good.  The engine performed properly.  Reconnected the new cruise M.

Then, went back to Gunrunner John's suggestion about disconnecting the IR transmitter.  Now the motor/engine responds properly!  Looks like I get to build a simple buffer/amp as suggested.  The 2n2222 is a fairly generic transistor.  I have lots of the 2N3904 and should work just as well.  Thanks for the suggestion!