Help understanding 2007 Legacy operation

Hancock52 posted:

I have an A-A pair of Texas Special E7s from the 6-31755 set issued about 12 years ago. They got lots of run time some years back, were moved to display and now I’ve put them on the rails again I notice a couple of things:

1.  When shutting down the engines via the Cab2, the smoke units keep running although the sounds do not and the smoke units have to be shut down separately. I don’t recall this set acting that way when new; an ID and feature reset (Aux1+7 as per the manual) makes no difference. Have I forgot something - was this a quirk of Legacy engines of the time? Anything else I should try to cause the smoke to shut down with the sounds?

Early Legacy engines did this.  The smoke units fans were NOT part of the shut down sequence and had to be shut down via the remote smoke controls.

2.  Although the manual contains instructions for making a Legacy lashup of this pair I found that by default the trailing unpowered A unit (which has smoke and directional lighting but no sound) is set to be the rear-facing engine. Is it necessary to go through the lashup procedure at all? These engines came with separate orange modules and I set them up using those. I then created a train and from memory they ran fine configured as such although now they won’t answer the train commands. I transferred the settings to a new Cab2 and updated the software a while back. I wonder if this has anything to do with the smoke unit issue?

If the trailin A is set is default to be rear facing then you don't have to put it in a "lashup".  The update had nothing to do with the smoke unit issue.  That's coded in the engine.  After everyone noticed this issue Lionel changed the coding on future releases to turn off the smoke unit fans when "shutdown" was initiated.

 

The reset code on early Legacy Diesels should be Aux1 2. Steam was Aux1 1. Later RCMC Legacy does not require a code. Aux1 7 is only for certain TMCC diesels.

Pete

Norton posted:

The reset code on early Legacy Diesels should be Aux1 2. Steam was Aux1 1. Later RCMC Legacy does not require a code. Aux1 7 is only for certain TMCC diesels.

Pete

Sorry, you are right. I used 2 as per the manual and misremembered that. 

Bearing in mind what Marty says, I also forgot the early Legacy smoke unit operation and a reset will make no difference. BTW, I’ve had the smoke units apart to fix noisy fan motors and noticed when I tried to get the original parts that these units have 6 Ohm resistors. Spare AC regulators therefor went on the shopping list.

Lionel suggested to change the 6 Ohm resistors to 8 Ohm.  I've done this with my Legacy engines from this era and have yet to change a smoke regulator.

The 8 Ohm is not as hard on the smoke reg.

Hancock52 posted:

BTW, I’ve had the smoke units apart to fix noisy fan motors and noticed when I tried to get the original parts that these units have 6 Ohm resistors. Spare AC regulators therefor went on the shopping list.

I'd first do the Lionel recommended replacement of the resistors for 8 ohm resistors.  The 6 ohm resistors were taking out too many regulator modules.  When the regulator shorts, you get 18V track power on a six ohm resistor.  By rapid calculation, that's around 50+ watts being dissipated in the tiny smoke unit, normal is around 5-7 watts.  Needless to say, for the short time the smoke unit lives, you get SPECTACULAR smoke, and then you need to not only replace the regulator module, but also the smoke PCB.  I've had to fix a few of these, and I was on hand to see one go up in person, it was pretty amazing!   It also takes several years for the stink of burned fiberglass to fade, no matter how well you clean it!

Yes, when I got the new smoke unit PCB, I replaced the 6 ohm resistor with an 8 ohm one!

FWIW, I have the early Legacy 10-wheeler, their smoke control was very primitive, it's strictly run off the chuff switch.  If the switch is closed, the fan is off, and if the switch is open, the fan runs.  That's whether it's moving or not.  Of course, this is not all that satisfactory. A number of early Legacy locomotives operate in a similar manner

So, I did my first Legacy Super-Chuffer installation.  The conversion was surprisingly easy, I just replaced the old fan control PCB with the Super-Chuffer.  Turns out that all the wires needed to go to the Super-Chuffer were right in the area, so the wiring was pretty easy.  After I took these pictures, I went back and added an LED headlight with Rule-17 lighting control, I was initially not going to do that, but I figured... why not?

Take this out...

Wire this in.

Maybe it makes no difference but these are the only engines I don’t run on the HIGH smoke setting because the 8 stacks are connected to the smoke unit by a large plastic funnel contraption about 6” long and the smoke only exits it with relatively little pressure. However, having been reminded of the 8 Ohm resistor advice I’ll probably swap the stock ones over the next time I have the body shells off.

One good mod for those troublesome stacks is to add airflow.  How do you do this you might ask??? 

First off, drill out the intake hole, shoot for 1/4", be mindful of not cutting any traces on the PCB.  Next, drill out as much as possible the brass nipple outlet hole, typically you can widen them a bit as well.  Finally, make SURE there is a clear path for airflow between the fan chamber outlet and the stack.  Depending on the design of the plastic funnel, you may be able to improve the airflow through it a bit as well.

Thank you John - including for answering a most pertinent question! It had not occurred to me to make any of those mods, which I'll try when I next have the shells off. I never expected these particular engines to smoke like ALCOs with turbo lag (if that's what it's called) or PS1 diesels but anything that would add a little more oomph to the output would make me happy.