ERR K line help?

The small 4 pin connector I believe went to the K-Line Cruise board and the motor tach sensor. That can be left unconnected. The larger 4 pin connector has the direction signals and goes between the motherboard and Cruise M. There should have been a similar connector already there. It would have 4 wires. The ERR replacement may have 3 wires. The 4 wire original connector has two for 5 v which ERR determined was redundant.

BTW don’t be surprised if you lost chuff. On this engine the K-Line Cruise board generated chuff much like an MTH engine does.

Pete

Hi PETE,

  Thanks for the reply.  Yes the cruise board and motor sensor was a three pin connector.  I unhooked it.  The smaller K line four pin has two yellow wires  going to pin three a black wire and blue wire.  Do I take these out and put them in the ERR a pin connector? Here is a the pic.

Do the wires in the smaller connector also go to the motor. Blue and yellow are typically the colors used for motor power. See if they go to the PC board on top of the motor.

Pete

PETE,

  One of the yellow wires goes to the 08 board, the other goes to the smoke unit motors.  The blue goes to the original four pin connector in first photo.

Laz, the two holes in this picture likely have wires in them now. They are attached to the motor brushes. They now have to be spliced into the two motor drive wires that plug into the Cruise M via the micro molex connectors. You can splice the wires or unsolder the ones on the motor PC board and replace them with the ones from the black micro molex connector.

Pete

Pete,  they are already there.  Here is the pic.

Hey George, when you powered up the track, did it wake up in command, or in conventional?…also did you double check your serial line out of the M, to the radio board?…

Pat

Hi PAT,

  When I powered it up just the sounds came on along with the marker lights.  I could not do any other command movements.  I even tried to reprogram it but it just sat there with the sounds on.  I still think that I need to change out the smaller 4 pin connector to the bigger CC-M bigger four pin connector.  But don’t want to smoke the board?

PAT,

  The serial line I have hooked up to the serial antenna as was told by instructions.  

Laz, leave the small connector alone. Use the larger 4 pin to 4 pin connector that should have come with your kit to connect the motherboard to the Cruise M.

Serial data is pin 24 on the radio board. The antenna is pin 23. Pin 24 goes to pin 1 on the ten pin connector on the Cruise M. Not the antenna wire.

Pete

George, Pete is correct,….the Radio board tells the M what to do via the mother board,…..do you have a pin out for the radio board if you’d like to double check the traces from the mother board to the radio board?…..here’s the pin out for the M side…..I’ve circled the J1 connector that’s the connection from the radio board to the M,……with out it, you’ll have nothing, which is what you’re experiencing now,…..with out serial out to the tender, the tender will wake up conventional,…..

Pat

PETE and PAT,  thanks I’ll try it out in the morning.  I will put the four pin CC-M connector to the four pin motherboard connector and solder the serial data PIN number 1 to pin 24.  Hope it works.

George, If you’re still unsure, post up some pics of the connections you’re gonna make so maybe somebody can double check behind you before you power it up, just in case something looks hoky……just a thought buddy,…

Pat

Thanks PAT, good idea.  I’ll get a picture up.  

PETE AND PAT,

  Here are some pictures before I power it up.  
The first is the ERR four pin to four pin on motherboard.

The second shows disconnected motherboard four pin and disconnected k line four pin.

The last is the serial data soldered to pin 24.

Hope this is right.

George, that should get you going with sound. The cable you have left over I believe went to the circuit on the K-Line Cruise board that gave you chuff. A few K-Line Cruise engines worked that way. You now have to come up with another way to generate the chuff signal and drive the R2LC and fan motor. Many resort to John’s chuff generator and super chuffer.

BTW assuming it will now run and respond to commands, consider moving the wire on pin 24 on the R2LC to the pin below it.

Pete

Thanks for the reply PETE.  I will do the resoldering  of the pin 24.  I’ll let you know what happens.

Well I put it on the tracks after resoldering to pin 24.  Powered up layout and got the same thing sounds come on at power up but can not do any other commands.  No whistle, movement, or anything.  Can’t figure this out.  Any other suggestions?

It indicates its not getting the TMCC signal. If you have another R2LC, any version, plug it in to see if you get no sounds on power up. Normal operation with TMCC  is no sounds on power up until its addressed.
Normally with the shell off the TMCC signal will still be received without the antenna wire attached but you may have to stick a wire where the antenna wire plugs in if there isn’t one there already.

Pete

PETE,

  I did swap out the R2LC 08 board with another 08 board and I also swapped out the ERR CC-M board too.  Still get the same results.  Power up sound but nothing else.  I tried to reprogram new board and get no response.  Same old same old.  Anything else I can do?  I might have to transplant everything back to how it was?

The only thing I can think of is pull the ten pin connector off the Cruise M. The M may be pulling down serial data to a level that the Railsounds board doesn’t see a signal.

If that fixes sound you may have put in a buffer circuit. Careful when powering up as the engine may take off.

Pete

hi PETE,

  Suppose I took the smaller 4 pin connector, motor phase/ drive info, and pulled those pins and put them into the CC-M supplied 4 pin connector and put back the original 4 pin k line connector back into the motherboard, will this harm the CC-M?  That’s the only thing I can think of that hasn’t been done.  I am just thinking this because of where these wires from but the smaller connector and the motherboard connector are both carrying wires to the 08 board.

George, is it still waking up in conventional?…or is it silent when you power up track UNTIL you address it?……is the RUN/PGM switch still hooked up and functioning?…..before you go attempting anything else, let’s establish that you have command working,…as Pete suggested, unplug everything from the M, and test the system, ….be sure no antenna wires are touching anything!!….The M is just a motor driver, so the radio board really won’t care if it’s there or not,…..so in other words, let’s establish you have command of the locomotive via the remote, and then we’ll circle back, and connect the M,…..also be sure the radio board is seated on the pins, and not jumped off a pin pairing,…..it’s easy to do if not careful,……I’ve caught myself almost making that mistake more than once ,…..

Pat

Hi PAT,

  I tried it again with serial line pin 24 still nothing but sounds, but I can turn on head light and the smoke unit heats up but no fan motor.  So it is getting signal, but not to the drive board.  The run / program is on.  The 08 board is seated. I think I will convert back to the old cruise that was in it.  Just seems like something isn’t right and if I have to go and put chuff into it then maybe more problems.  This shouldn’t have been such a big thing but seems like it is. I have done about six of these conversions to CC-M and they were easy.  This one seems like it was a puzzle that can’t be solved at least for me.  
  Thank you PAT and PETE for all the suggestions and help but going to go back to the K line cruise.  Maybe get back to it if more info comes in on these K line 4-6-6 tank engines.

Somehow serial data has been lost. Keep us posted after you restore it to original. Normally the only thing lost when you remove the K-Line board is chuff on this particular engine.

Pete

Hi PETE,

  I fully restored it to original K line components, and everything works like before.  No problems with the signal, runs and smokes good.  It still has that k line hesitation in the cruise, but after it gets going runs pretty good.  I think I will just live with it.  Thanks for your time on this, I wish I would know more on why it didn’t pick up the signal.

Sorry I couldn’t help George. It a little hard doing this remotely not seeing all thats going on. The few K-Line Cruise engines that have the ability to generate chuff on the cruise board are better left alone until they fail. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to restore chuff and puffing smoke.

Pete

Thanks again PETE for your insight.

Pete is sadly right, you have to replace a lot of stuff to restore the function of the locomotives like the Tank Engine when you remove the K-Line cruise.  I have one waiting in the wings for that very upgrade...