I'm trying to install the ERR Cruise Commander M in a K-Line A5 Switcher with TMCC. As you can imagine, this is a tight fit. My first attempt at installation went pretty well, the engine ran smoothly in forward, but would not reverse and indicated a short. I returned the board to ERR as defective and they sent me a new replacement board. I've installed this new board with no success. When I turn on power to the track, the engine takes off like a bat-out-of-hell. I've tried re-installing it with the same results. Does anyone have any suggestions before I send it out for repair? Thanks.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Same thing happened to me with a Lionel B&A 0-8-0 that I installed ERR. As soon as I powered up the tracks it took off a flying. BOXCAR BILL has it and he stated that there was a bunch of defective boards and was going to install a new one.
Make sure you have a good connection between Pin 1 on the ten pin connector on the Cruise M and pin 24, serial data, on the R2LC. If the Cruise M doesn't see serial data it runs in conventional Mode.
Pete
Would the fact that K Line engines default to forward in the reversing sequence affect this? Not sure if this is the case with TMCC engines though.
Don
First off, you MUST program the board with the correct type code or it can take off on you. Also, as Pete says, if the serial connection isn't properly done, the CCM doesn't get the word and will probably also take off at full speed.
I installed the CCM into that K-Line A5, I just did a little alteration of how it mounted so that it would fit, it is a very tight fit.
The engine is not seeing the TMCC handshake. It thinks it's in conventional
mode. Assuming the TMCC is working correctly I would say you may have a bad
TMCC board. I think it's called the radio board. Should not be hard to change.
Hopefully one of the experts will chime in and be more specific on exactly
what the board is called. I know Gunrunner John has this engine with cruse.
He would know...
I don't think this is the R2LC, though you never know. It sounds like a serial comm issue, but it's somewhat hard to say.
I don't think this is the R2LC, though you never know. It sounds like a serial comm issue, but it's somewhat hard to say.
I was answering at the same time you were.
I only mentioned that because he said
it ran forward but not backwards. Then the board went bad. That is a tight engine to deal with, So to me it sounded like he grounded a wire. Hard to tell without pictures at times.
Oh well as long as he get's it fixed. I really like that engine....
Thanks to all that chimed in. I will recheck all of my connections, especially the serial comm connection. If that doesn't work, I'll buy a new R2LC board. Happy Easter/Holiday.
You can swap the R2LC from another engine to test before you spend money on a new board. I don't really see this as a likely R2LC failure, so it would be a shame to spend the money when a simple test will confirm if it's an issue.
If you swap boards, just make sure that every time the board is moved, you do a full initialization of the board, setting the TMCC # and the locomotive type each time in program mode.