Legacy Newbie....Start Up Question

Once you power up the track with a TMCC or Legacy engine on it and programmed that engine with an engine number, it "hears" the command signal from the Legacy base. Engines come out of the box as Eng 1 which you can change by programming it.

Your challenger did exactly what it was supposed to do and was waiting for you to tell it what to do.

It is simple as this. Remember Art Carney in the Honeymooners with a golf club at the tee and he says "hello ball"? Same concept with your engine there. 

Thanks Ted for the info. Sorry I'm just seeing your post now.

I am glad to hear it has done what it is supposed to do but I have had different results each time I've tried to start the engine.

Sometimes it will come alive when I turn the remote on (without pressing start up as mentioned in my original post) and others it will sit silently.

Guess that is what it is supposed to do?

A Legacy engine should wait until it receives a command before it starts making sound. Just turning on the remote should not start the engine. That said, if you accidentally bump one of the controls--the aux key, brake slider, throttle, etc., any single command sent to that engine will "wake it up." 

However, if you intentionally take an operating engine and put it into shutdown, then the rules are different. In "shutdown" mode, you need to use an explicit startup command (or a reset) to get it to make sounds again.

I'd guess that these two different behaviors account for your experience that looks like inconsistent behavior. But again, just turning on the remote should not wake up the engine, unless a command is also sent. Hope this helps.

Thanks Rudy. Seems like something is not working as it should. I was able to recreate my issue and the video is below.

As you can see it starts up before I touch anything on the remote

I see on your hand held control that your trainbrake is ON some when you are turning your remote on. Sometimes that is all it needs to start your locomotive. Try sliding your trainbrake all the way off. and start again'

Thanks Bob.

You may be on to something here....I was able to recreate, repeatedly, last night with the Challenger and Legacy Mogul on the track. Being that both engines were doing this consistently lead me to believe that this was not an issue with a single engine.

I had - literally - 5 minutes before I had to leave for the office this morning and ran downstairs to try your suggestion with the train brake "off" (or in the "released" position on the remote). The Challenger stayed quiet the few times I repeated the start up process and never once started up on it's own. I will play around a bit more tonight with it and the Mogul.

More to come.....

I have both DCS and Legacy and have never seen this issue.  The only difference is my start up sequence: first I power up the transformer(s) along with the Legacy base and TIU; next, I power up the CAB2 and DCS remotes; finally, I power up the track.

What happens if you power up the CAB2 then apply power to the track?

Dan,

Remote first than track power is on my test list for this evening. Thanks!

That's the order I use, never an issue.

Messed around a bit last night, both Challenger and Mogul on the same track, running off same handle of Z-4000.

Having the train brake on when powering the layout and remote up is definitely causing the "unrequested" start up. I did see a vague blurb about this in the manual but it was not very clear or definitive about this causing it.

I did note some other irregularities, which may have been operator errors.

One think I did notice was, swapping back and forth between engines by pressing the "ENG" button, the touchpad would revert to numbers and the start up button, even though the engine was running. A tap of the whistle, for example, would immediately change the key pad to the running display. Seemed to be consistent from both engines, at all times and may be normal but again, not sure. Would appreciate it if anyone could confirm/deny this.

Maybe I should've stayed conventional only.....

SJC posted:

Messed around a bit last night, both Challenger and Mogul on the same track, running off same handle of Z-4000.

Having the train brake on when powering the layout and remote up is definitely causing the "unrequested" start up. I did see a vague blurb about this in the manual but it was not very clear or definitive about this causing it.

I did note some other irregularities, which may have been operator errors.

One think I did notice was, swapping back and forth between engines by pressing the "ENG" button, the touchpad would revert to numbers and the start up button, even though the engine was running. A tap of the whistle, for example, would immediately change the key pad to the running display. Seemed to be consistent from both engines, at all times and may be normal but again, not sure. Would appreciate it if anyone could confirm/deny this. this is a normal operation

Maybe I should've stayed conventional only.....

are you close to a club that could give you some ideas?

bigdodgetrain posted:

SJC posted:

Messed around a bit last night, both Challenger and Mogul on the same track, running off same handle of Z-4000.

Having the train brake on when powering the layout and remote up is definitely causing the "unrequested" start up. I did see a vague blurb about this in the manual but it was not very clear or definitive about this causing it.

I did note some other irregularities, which may have been operator errors.

One think I did notice was, swapping back and forth between engines by pressing the "ENG" button, the touchpad would revert to numbers and the start up button, even though the engine was running. A tap of the whistle, for example, would immediately change the key pad to the running display. Seemed to be consistent from both engines, at all times and may be normal but again, not sure. Would appreciate it if anyone could confirm/deny this. this is a normal operation

Maybe I should've stayed conventional only.....

are you close to a club that could give you some ideas?

Ideas for what? I was heavily involved in the local modular club, National Capital Trackers, for 11 years. I've moved on to other things and have no desire or intention to get involved again.

EDIT - Thanks for the confirmation on the engine swap and touch pad, just saw that now. Glad to hear that is normal operation.