Legacy battery issues

What kind of batteries are you using, specific type and brand please.  What are the exact indications when you put the remote into the charging base, do you have the blinking lights indicating charging?

They are the green batteries that came with the controller. And the replacements Lionel sent, are the same thing.
When I put the controller on the base, the lights come on, but the batteries never charge.
  Put in a set of Energizers and just put electrical tape over the contacts. Unit works fine. Just doesnt charge.

How exactly do the lights react?  Do they slowly blink red, or are they both on solid?

 

Both on solid

That certainly indicates a charging failure, I don't know how they can miss that!

 

Lionel has done nothing but waste my money in shipping. Thats why I went to a local Lionel repair center, and was told its a common problem. And Lionel wont fix them. Thats why he suggested to tape over the contacts.

That flies in the face of my experience.  I sent in a total of three units, two Legacy #990 bases and one #993 charger.  Lionel fixed the charging circuits in all of them without charge, and one of them was about five years old!

 

Whoever is telling you Lionel won't fix them is misinformed.

 

Several years ago I had a 990 base unit charge circuit failure on an older unit. Lionel repaired it promptly. However I was still having problems so I put in non rechargeable batteries to use the system. I then purchased a Duracell battery charger along with new Duracell rechargeable batteries. I discovered the batteries from Lionel would not charge in the new Duracell charger either. I tossed them, put in the new batteries and have had no problems for over a year. The new Duracell batteries are HR6/DC1500 NiMH, 2450mAh. Other brands should work as well. They charge correctly in the 990 and 993 bases. 

Ill give that a try. I was going to ask if a different battery will charge in the base. I have some Energizer AA rechargables. Would those work ?

The batteries I am using are NiMH so they are 1.2V. They have worked flawlessly for well over a year so if the Energizers are similar they should work. The non rechargables I used temporarily are Energizer Ultimate Lithium and are 1.5V; they worked fine also.

Based on the discussions here in this forum, I use rechargeable batteries, but use an external battery charger. I thus have duct taped the base to remote contacts over...

welcome to the forum.  read around plenty of people have had the same issue hang in there it will get fixed.  next time you send it in make sure you explain the unit has already been sent in and you want a pre-paid tag sent to your email.

are you calling or emailing?  email in my experience is better.  talktous@lionel.com

 

keep us informed.

I would call and talk to someone. And they would confirm this unit was sent in previously. I explained the unit came back without being fixed. I even taped a note to the unit so the tech could see the complaint and history.
Thats what was used as a reply from the tech. It stated, unit tested and worked without issue. Placed a 2nd set of batteries in box just incase these batteries fail.
  So I know Lionel was informed.
But I will try using my energizer batteries tonight to see if they charge.

I had an issue where my batteries wold not charge. Those batteries Lionel includes are junk. I replaced all mine with Energizer NiMH rechargeables and have had an issue since

Thats good to know. Ive just been afraid to change the batteries. Some chargers dont work well with others. Im glad I posted this. Its better than just hearing someone tell me to tape the terminals and buy regular batteries. Thats been expensive.

I am no expert on anything. Have you looked on the back of the base for the charger for the on/off switch. I did not see this mentioned above.

 

Brent

The charging ON-OFF switch is on the bottom of my 990. I never understood the need to tape over the contacts when the charger could just be turned off if non rechargeable batteries were in the Cab 2. 

To prevent leakage through the charging circuit from discharging the batteries.  The switch doesn't switch the contacts directly, it's an input to the logic that simply tells the charger not to attempt to charge.

 

Thanks, gunrunnerjohn, did not know that, will add tape to mine ASAP, as I do not use rechargeable batteries.

 

Brent 

To be fair, I have no idea if it'll drain them or not.  I know that the switch does not switch the contacts directly, so they're still connected to some circuitry.  How much power drain, if any, could only be answered by Lionel.  However, it's cheap to tape the contacts...

 

Great points. I measured across the terminals with a cheap multimeter. Saw about 4,000 ohms across two pairs of terminals, about 15k ohms across the third pair. With 4.5V it is about one milliamp continuous drain. It would drain cheap AA's in 15 days, expensive ones in 45 days if I am reading the battery ratings correctly. 

The 2 solid red light error can also be faulty batteries or hot batteries.

 

Have you tried the other pair?

Yes Ive already tried the 2 sets of batteries, and yes the switch on the bottom is on.

certainly appears to be not charging then. That stinks!

 

How about one more long shot. Batteries in, remote in cradle and unplug power to the base.

 

Then reconnect power and observe. Two solid reds, call Lionel, ask if you can speak with a tech since it's been there twice.

Before you go and start sending it back to Lionel again. Head over o Home Depot, get some Energizer rechargeable NiMH batteries, make sure the switch is on charge and put the new batteries in. all of my original batteries didn't last more than a week before they wouldn't charge. Cheap chinese junk

Do they make 2500mah batteries? You need the juice for the transmitter. The Duracell posted above are more suitable at 2450mah.

The charging circuit works fine.  Mine charges perfectly.  I have an original run and that was fixed by Lionel, never had issue since.  I bought a second one last year.  It also charges perfectly.  They are using the original batteries.  Are you leaving it plugged in long enough? 

Gentlemen,
There have been alot of great replies, and there have been some replies that make someone just scratch thier head.
  Keep in mind, writing a fully detailed post or reply is time consuming, and sometimes wasteful. Usually a person will take care of the minor details long before going to the steps of sending in a unit for repair multiple times. And usually wont add those to the post assuming everyone understands those items have already been done.
  Yes the power switch has been on. Yes the controller has been on the base long enough to charge the unit. Yes there is power coming from the contacts. Yes the contacts are clean and making contact. And other things have been done. The only thing I did not try yet is use a different brand of battery. Which I plan on trying tonight. I dont throw just any brand rechargable battery on a charger. Different brands have different circuitry to safeguard from thermal runaway. And placing a different battery on a charger its not intended for, can explode. So you have to know which ones are compatable or not.
  Obviously Im not the only one experiencing this issue, which is why I placed this post. I have gotten some great suggestions. And others have learned something as well.
  So please take the time and read the entire string before posting a reply.

If the red lights both come on steady immediately, it's indicating that there's either a battery issue or the charging circuit is bad.  What does it do if you try to charge it with fully charged batteries?

People are just trying to help and we can't assume you have done all that because so many posts before with these kinds of issues/troubleshooting turned out to be simple things the person missed.  I would send it back to Lionel because I know the charging works, I have 2 that do with original batteries.  If its been back a few times insist on a replacement or free shipping to them.  Either way I would not abandon that feature like others have.  I would hate to keep pulling batteries in and out and putting them in a charger all the time.  Yes at one time they had an issue , but that was resolved.  Again the lights indicate what's going on.  Lionel has fixed any Legacy unit in warranty or not so whoever told you they won't fix them is incorrect.

 

Its up to you but I would just be relentless and get them to fix it.

 

 

 

Rock,

   I agree with SandJam, Sean is right you payed for the unit to work correctly, take the time and have it fixed perfectly.

PCRR/Dave