Has Lionel fixed the Charging Circuit on their Legacy #990 sets?

They say they have.  I believe it was implemented several years back after the initial complaints.  I think, and not 100% sure, that it took a few production cycles.

I sent all of mine back in and got the charging circuit fixed, they all charge properly now.

Mine has always worked OK.  I do keep rechargeable's on hand for the Cab 1L's that get more use than the Cab 2.

Bruce

Mine is from the batch that was delayed for quite sometime a couple of years ago. The charging circuit works just fine.

IIRC, I finally got it in the fall of 2014 or somewhere around there.

Thanks guys

Do you leave the power on to the base all the time or do you shut it down when your layout is not running.  Currently I have mine where it shuts down when I kill the power to the layout.  

I shut it down unless I'm charging a remote. 

Mine also shuts down with the layout. In fact, everything I have that's train related shuts down with the layout.

 I have first-generation legacy set, mine stays powered all the time unless a storm is coming through or I am traveling on business. 

I sent mine back for the fix, but it never worked when it came back. Probably should send it back again.

I have 2, one of the original runs and one of the batch that was delayed and had to be fixed in the US.  Both had to go back for charging circuit repair and both work and charge now. 

Regardless, Lionel will fix it without charge.  So you could by a new one or used one and be fine if you don't mind sending it in for repair if the charging does not work.

I've had my Legacy set since 2015.  It has been sent back four times so far; twice for on/off problems, the keyboard was showing up in the display one time and the last time was for the charging lights blinking together.  They replaced a Bourns fuse SMT 1.50 AMP 63 volt component.  I have had it back five days now and the charging lights are blinking together again.  I guess I'll just send it back again.  To Lionel's credit, they have always fixed it for free and they do provide an RA label so the shipping is free too.  Thank goodness I still have my good old reliable TMCC Command Base and CAB1.

Other that replacing a fuse, does anyone know what the original issue was that so many of them failed. It seems kind of weird that every battery kiosk has a charger available that just works with no issues for as long as you own it.

Some sort of design issue.  I sent my #990 and #993 in, both of them were fixed and work fine.

I sent all in as well, but the 993 is blinking both red again. Different battery sets, etc. But it does charge adequately until that happens.

The blinking red sometimes indicates the batteries got too hot.

Sent mine in because the keyboard stopped functioning now the charging circuit doesn’t function. Back it goes. 

Mike

sent  my set in, charging system overheating, came back still overheating! I quit using the charging circuit. I now just use energizers or Duracells, I run my trains a lot, and I can get a month out of a set of batteries......the little bit I spend on batteries each month is a price Im willing to pay not to have deal with Lionel service....but that's for another thread I reckon!

Mine works out of the box but I don't like how hot the the remote gets.

I'll go on the record as saying having a charger was a good idea but seems to have been a bigger pain than it was worth. I'm not sure if it was implimented today if it could have been more robust. I don't leave anything plugged in so for me it's a moot point anyways.  I use alkaline batteries and turn the charginging circuit off.  Kudos to Lionel though for keeping the warranty period open on these for repair.  

I charge mine in the #993 charging base, doesn't get hot and charges them properly every time.  The #990 command base charges correctly, but the remote is pretty warm when I come back later and take it out, so I don't use that charger.

That's why I got the 993. And it worked properly for awhile after it went back to Lionel. But now it charges and then does the both red blinking where I just lift the remote and it resumes charging. It never gets to the green LEDs.

I spoke to Lionel this morning and it'll go back to them tomorrow morning.  They were surprised that it failed after only five days.  Me too!

Lonnie

I use a Maha MH-C401FS charger and have the base turned off.  Seems like most use a work around of some sort.  

gunrunnerjohn posted:

The blinking red sometimes indicates the batteries got too hot.

My issue is the fast blink. It says voltage exceeds...but I measured the voltage and it is not that high. I wonder if there is some contact resistance allowing the voltage to rise higher. I don't know how that is measured...while charging or suspending charging for an instant and measuring.

What brand of rechargeable batteries and capacity  are you using when you replace your remote batteries? I am thinking of going with 2000mah Panasonic Eneloop.

I am using the original batteries that were shipped with the set.  I just sent them back to Lionel with the base and remote.

I've seen some NiMh batteries put out over 1.5 volts after charging, I assumed they were defective.  They didn't do it under load, but I suspect that would have thrown the charging monitor for a loop.

I think I need to connect to the batteries while charging and set the fluke to store the max voltage. That’s been on my mind, but I have the issue with more that one set of batteries.

I don't know how the charger measures the maximum voltage, but my suspicion is that it pauses the charging to measure as the charging voltage will be higher than the nominal battery voltage.  That being said, I'm not sure capturing the max voltage will really tell you anything.