K-Line Hudson #327053435 with TMCC troubleshooting

Troy, be a little more specific, what sounds exactly are you missing? When in Command, have you lost everything like its dead silent? And when in Conventional, do you have all sounds? Whistle, bell, chuff etc.? .....double check your switches, make sure you’re in RUN and Railsounds is on.........Pat

Double checked.  In "run" and "railsounds".

In conventional:  Background pumps noises come on right away.  I also have whistle and bell.  NO chuff.

In TMCC:  Background pump noises come on right away.  I have NO whistle, bell or chuff.  Responds to forward, back and brake perfectly.  Didn't try the coupler yet... not sure it has that, I'll have to check.

Troy

Are you using Legacy? If so, be sure you programmed it for just railsounds, not RS5 or anything like that. Also, this is simple TMCC, not legacy controls. Make sure you programmed it correctly in the remote. Try a factory reset, and see if that restores sounds....take note: those Kline Hudson’s are known to kill the chuff switch buried up under the motor.....that will make chuff not work......but before you go rooting around, I’d reset things and make sure it’s programmed properly.......Pat

No chuff in conventional or command kinda' suggests it's the chuff switch or the tether between the locomotive and tender.  My guess is the serial data line is broken between the locomotive and tender, that would account for the sounds coming on right away in TMCC.

Question: In command mode, will the transformer whistle control blow the whistle?

That's interesting Gun.  Never would have even considered trying that but...

In TMCC there is no Whistle or bell, but it does indeed respond to the transformer (Z4000) whistle and bell button.  What does that mean?

Troy

It means the sound card isn't getting the message that it's in command mode.  That's the communication between the R2LC (bad output, wiring, or sound card fault). 

First step would be the check the wiring between the locomotive and tender, typically the 6-pin tether breaks a wire right at the connector.  Then I'd swap the R2LC with a working unit, and finally swap the sound board with a working unit.

For the wiring, you can plug everything together with the shells off and use your ohmmeter to check if there is continuity through the tether, the most likely suspect.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

It means the sound card isn't getting the message that it's in command mode.  That's the communication between the R2LC (bad output, wiring, or sound card fault). 

First step would be the check the wiring between the locomotive and tender, typically the 6-pin tether breaks a wire right at the connector.  Then I'd swap the R2LC with a working unit, and finally swap the sound board with a working unit.

For the wiring, you can plug everything together with the shells off and use your ohmmeter to check if there is continuity through the tether, the most likely suspect.

To check continuity John, he should do that test off the track, and not powered up ....correct?....he might find the magic smoke if he goes poking around while she’s live........Pat

Most certainly when you're using your ohmmeter, you do NOT want power on anything!

An interesting ending to this project.  I thought I would note it just as and FYI.

Before tearing into this, I decided to try to run a reset.  I used #4 on the reset instructions.  At first it still did nothing to fix the sounds issue.  I decided for now that I would settle on the fact that it at least ran, and I would address the sounds issue in another life.  I replaced the body screws on the tender body (they were out throughout this project).  Low and behold, on setting the unit back on the track and checking to make sure that it at least still ran, I realized I had all sound functions!  Everything is now working perfectly.  

Maybe someone can shed some light as to what that would have done???

Troy