Good evening everyone. Recently, I received Lionel's EM-1 and this evening I got it out and tried to program it. The only problem is that the engine would not respond. I have tried turning off and on the system, different transformers, different batteries, and different locomotive numbers. The interesting part is that I can still reprogram locomotives that are in the system. Also, I can still run the locomotives that are in the system. In other words, I cannot program any new locomotives into the system. Here are some details: the transformer I use is a postwar celebration series ZW with two 180 bricks and the command system was made in 2006 but has the silver dot in the battery compartment. Thanks and happy railroading!
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You say you can't program any new locomotives in the system.
Is the em1 the only "new locomotive" your trying to program or are there others?
If it's just the em1. You could try addressing it with the "all" id of engine 99 just to see if it responds.
Another thing would be to try programming it with the switch set to run and see if it takes an i.d#. Then putting the switch on prgrm to try running it.
Occasionally there are posts where the run/program switch is wired backwards.
I want to say there was a post by a member with this issue on a recent new release. I don't recall which model it was.
Sorry, I should have said that there is another locomotive. The other locomotive is a Southern Pacific 2-8-8-4 from 2017. I am borrowing this locomotive, for a video, and I found out this problem when I tried to program this locomotive last week. Something I did forget to mention is that before it tried to program the AC-9 I programmed a station sounds dinner. Today, I am going to see if the switches are in reverse and see if I can reset my remote. Thanks for the help.
Well I have hit another brick wall. I just got finished Seeing if the run/program switch was reversed and resetting the remote. Result, nothing. Both locomotives still do not respond to the set command. I have also tried locomotive id 1 and 99 and they did not work. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Just to check what does the locomotive start up with track power or does it sit silent waiting for a command?
Dumb question, did you unplug the command base and see if they come up in conventional mode? Be ready to kill the power in case they take off.
@zhubl posted:Just to check what does the locomotive start up with track power or does it sit silent waiting for a command?
The locomotive just sits there with the number boards on but no smoke or sound.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Dumb question, did you unplug the command base and see if they come up in conventional mode? Be ready to kill the power in case they take off.
Yes, the locomotive does operate under conventional control.
Something else I tried today was programming it with the 99 id number and the EM-1 worked but something interesting happened. I also have a VL BB and a Legacy AC-9 powered up and when I addressed the EM-1 (take note that all locomotives are in run mode and the Big Boy is the only one already programmed in my remote) all three would come on and respond. I am dumbfounded on why they all respond under one id number even though my Big Boy is already programmed.
As Ricko posted above, all engines will respond to eng 99
Eng 99 is as far as I know with the RCMC ALL engines will respond
It sounds like an issue with the PGM/RUN switch. If the switch is open, it's in RUN mode. If a wire is off, you can never get it into PGM mode. Since it runs with #99, the actual running gear sounds OK.
Thanks for y’all’s help! That would explain why all of the locomotives on the track would respond. John I understand what your saying but the problem is that this is not just happening with the EM-1 but also with an AC-9 from 2017.
Debugging is solving one problem at a time. If you have multiple issues, address them one at a time. Trying to debug the operation of multiple failures at the same time is a recipe for frustration. Work on one, if you solve that one, it's likely to fix some other issues as well.
Thanks John. So far I am trying to take it one at a time. Hopefully the solution will show itself soon.