Help--new user, no clue

Oh--there is an antenna!. Not in the quick start section of the booklet. Let me hook that up and I suspect I will be fine.

The antennae won't fix that. If you get runaway at take off it means the engine is not seeing the base signal. That signal is via the wire from the base to the outside rail. Also make sure base is plugged into a properly grounded outlet. No plug strips

You don't have an old TMCC base setup on the layout do you?

Nevermind--antenna, smantenna!! This E6 still cannot tell I own a Legacy system. Anybody have a suggestion?

No TMCC base. I will move the plug to a wall socket.

Moved the plug to a wall outlet from a strip--still no dice. Any other thoughts?

 

Probably Sat I will set up a spare length of track, a little transformer and hook up legacy and see if the E6 gets it. I have my layout wired for DCS--never used the Lionel rig. never run conv. I hope I was not mistaken in that the Legacy one wire system made this seem so easy to integrate.

 

We'll see....

Have you tried connecting the binding wire directly to the outer rail?

What terry said, run the wire directly from the base to the outer rail. Next (bad) option a loose board in the E6

Also make sure both the base and the cab 2 are powered up before you apply track power and that the cab 2 remote is seeing the command base. You the need to address the engine (program) and the set to run for normal operation.

Set up a mini-layout and got it to run and finally got it to run on big layout. We'll work on it more this weekend. Thx

try turning off the DCS.

 

watch these videos.

http://www.lionel.com/CustomerService/service-documents/index.cfm?type=supplement&doAction=search&product=6-14295&productNumber=

There are no issues between DCS and TMCC that would require you to turn on or the other off

DCS wasn't on and I was running only 1 Legacy loco. I finally got it to recognize commands on my big layout. I am reading through the entire booklet. I will post more questions if I can't find answers elsewhere on the board.

 

One question I do have now--the handheld kept showing "Cab 1"
 in the readout. I know it is a Cab 2 and I suppose somehow it was kicking out of Legacy and back into TMCC--anyone know about this?

You need to go back to the book and read about the Legacy system.

 

You can press the Info button, then the Scroll button to move over to the types.  There is CAB1 emulation, TMCC, and Legacy modes.

I'm sorry, but this is false and might mislead someone later who reads this thread.  The Antenna is indeed important.  The TMCC/Legacy signal transmission requires both the track-borne signal from the terminal on the Base, AND the airborne signal that conducts down through the power cord attached to the Base and into the house wiring, where it radiates to the antenna in the locomotive.

 

A disconnected antenna will disable the locomotive.

 

See
http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=317 for a thorough explanation.

Right you are Dale, when I forget to plug the antenna back in and put on the diecast shell, suddenly things don't work at all!

I believe chris meant the base antenna to receive the cab2 signal.

Thanks, Marty.  I missed that.

Dale that was in response to his second post about finding the antennae. My assumption was that he meant the short one that comes with the base. Not that the antennae some fell Off the E6 and was rattling around in the box

Well, that makes a difference, but you need the one on the Legacy base tool.

Okay--the problem was somehow the engine was only running in TMCC (Cab 1)--don't know how. Reprogrammed the loco per the instructions and now it works like a champ--great smoke, great whistle, speed control, etc. We'll see if the smoke unit goes kablam, as this unit has been wont to do.

 

I have an underpass and if the loco is moving slowly it will stall inside. Any thoughts on how to help this problem?

 

Other than this, we seem to be doing much, much better....Thanks for the help.

ground plane, run a wire to the house ground.

Just run a single strand of wire under the overpass and ground it to the house?

Yes that will work

Is the extra ground wire supposed to go over the path of the loco, beside it, or below the track?

 

Also, it appears there is no way to completely turn off the smoke units from the Legacy handheld--you must pick up the loco and turn off the smoke switch on the loco. Is this correct?

Use the smoke on/off icons.  The stack with less smoke on the icon will shut it off with multiple pushes.

There are three smoke steps, so Marty is correct, keep pushing the "turn me off" button until it quits.

Okay--got the smoke to go off from the hand unit, got the ground plane issue fixed, and have learned more about the Legacy system. The Atlantic's smoke unit has not died, as did some earlier Atlantics with the poor smoke unit gaskets. Love the sound overall, the whistle steam effect and the whistle quilling sound. All good.

 

Thanks for everyone's help.