Getting started with TMCC

You need a command base to access tmcc control. With a powermaster you are running it conventionally with a remote.

The power Master gives you the ability to vary the voltage from the 180w brick to run conventionally.

@WILLIAM STILLMAN 011917 posted:

So I finally got the D&H Challenger running in conventional mode. (Odyssey cruise control was set very low and since this an early vintage loco there is no "odyssey off" switch. Thankfully the pack-rat in me had the original instruction sheets). Now I'd like to try out TMCC. I have a180 W power house. I don't have a command base but I have a power master and a command remote, so I suppose things should work out. I've connected the power master to the power house and put the power master in command mode, then put the loco on the track. When I turn up the voltage using the command remote, the loco flies off the track at full throttle. Clearly I'm missing something, yes?

Thanks,

Bill

Try this link: https://www.lionelsupport.com/...7250CABandBASE1L.pdf

Judging by your words, you have a gray CAB1 and a gray PowerMaster. Until you get a base, put the switch on the PowerMaster in CONV mode. Assuming you kept the PowerMaster at "1", just press "TR", then "1", the rotate the knob up. Then DIR cuts the power to the track, and horn and bell put DC offsets on the track. Might be a few other things you can do.

---------------------- Stuff you can skip reading ------------------------------

With the PowerMaster in CMD setting, full voltage is sent to the track, and all the PowerMaster does is be a really expensive switch that will respond to the red triangle on the remote. It has saved my trains at times. Then without a Command Base, the TMCC engine doesn't hear the TMCC signal, so it thinks, hey, must be conventional, and its full voltage, get going and fast.

The original gray CAB1 used crystals around 26 MHz to send signals to either a (gray) Command Base and/or one or more (gray) PowerMasters. The Power Master listens for TRack commands and acts accordingly. The (gray) Command Base also listens to the 26MHz signal and sort of retransmits it to the track at 450 kHz, and also sends the message out the 9-pin connector.

The blue CAB1L transmits at a higher frequency that I keep getting wrong on the OGR forum, is received by the (blue) Legacy CommandBase (or something like that), re-transmits to the track at the same 450 kHz, then if present, one or more blue PowerMaster listens to the 450 kHz signal and acts on  TRack commands.

Note that you can use gray CAB1s and gray Command Base with blue PowerMasters; I do, I have 2.5 gray remotes (one is flaky), and one blue remote, kept losing the one blue in the basement.

It could be argued that if you lasted this long, you should wait until Lionel releases the Base3 and wait for people to sell their blue Legacy Command Bases and blue remotes, rather than buy a gray Command Base (its actually black).

There is something, maybe a Signal Bridge, that lets older CAB1s talk with the newer stuff, but I personally would pass on it.

I intend to by the second generation Base3 after all the hard-working folks work out the bugs with the first generation for me.