Legacy-TMCC Question

It shouldn't matter. When you say it comes up in conventional, is it taking off the minute track is powered up or is it just sitting there with sounds?

There is a reset procedure near the back of the manual for when a locomotive becomes unresponsive, its worth a shot as you go through a "process of elimination".

Here it is on page 18 if you don't have a manual, "reprogramming locomotive to restore features".

Lionel Atlantic Manual

Thanks RickO;

Mostly it sits still when powered up; except once I shut it down to put the prog switch back to run, and when powered up it took off like a funny car.

I have tried the reset, but it won't recognize its supposed ID# of 84, so I can't get that to work.

Time to check the insides I guess.

Rod

I guess I'd start by checking the antenna wire going to the handrails once you have the shell off, also no part of the handrail should touch the outside shell, it can interfere with the signal.

The owners manual makes special mention of this as well:

"If your locomotive appears to have problems receiving communication from the command base, be sure that the ends of the handrails are insulted from the body by either and insulating washer or handrail stanchion."

When it sits there does the headlight blink steady?

Are you able to test the loco in a conventional environment?

Have you tried powering up while holding your hand over the engine to intensify the TMCC signal?  If it starts up in TMCC then you might have marginal signal strength and the engine might be on the low end of signal sensitivity.  Also,  have you tried to try to start it up on different places on the layout?  You might also try installing a temporary jumper cable from the outside rail near where you have the engine to the U terminal on the base.  This will ensure you have a strong TMCC return signal.  That plus the hand over the engine will give you the strongest TMCC signal you could probably get.

If that doesn't do it then the issue is probably with the engine.

Ricko, Chris;

Thanks for the input.

There has been some progress.

I discovered that the forward handrail where it curves up around the boiler front, passes within a whisker of the boiler light housings on each side. Apparently in shipping one side got bent inwards a smidge and was grounding out on the light housing. Got that fixed OK. Now it starts up silently and wakes up to ID#84.

Then I tried an engine reset a couple of times.

It will now start up properly, but to get it moving requires furious spinning of the control knob, and almost as soon as you stop spinning it the engine quickly grinds to a halt.

Switching Odyssey on/off makes no difference.

Also I can't turn the smoke off, nor can I get it to go into reverse. It will only move forwards. Chuff sounds are fine, all other sounds seem fine.

Smoke puffs as it should.

I am at a bit of a loss because I have never seen these symptoms when running TMCC.

I have tried pushing the L-M-H momentum buttons. No difference I can see.

Anyone got any other ideas?

This thing seems possessed, but Halloween was 2 days ago!

Rod

Well 3 weeks have gone by, and we are no closer to a resolution on the Atlantic, but here is where we are:

Two brand new R4LC boards supplied by BoxcarBill resulted in no change. A few different sypmtoms, but no overall solution.

So I re-installed the original R4LC.

I then took the engine over to a nearby fellow forum member's house, who kindly offered to try it out on his legacy layout. Guess what? To my total shock it ran perfectly and all functions worked as they should.

So I am at a total loss.

It runs just as it should under Legacy, but not under TMCC.

What the heck is going on here?

The symptoms are: It will not stay moving when you stop turning the speed control red knob.

It won't run in reverse.

The rear coupler won't fire.

The smoke unit won't switch off.

Sounds and chuff all seem to work fine.

Odyssey on or off makes no difference.

It will not respond to a new ID # or an engine reset using AUX1, 1.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

The (very well known) forum member I bought it from has graciously offered to take it back, but being a stubborn SOB, I figure I should be able to get this issue resolved somehow.

I plan to contact Lionel service to see if they might know.

Sorry for rambling on.......

Rod

Being one of the guys who just fixed his TMCC woes with retuning his base, I'm with John on this one.  To make sure it was the problem, I tried my locomotives with a known good base.  Also test if your TMCC base works when attached to a Legacy base.  This will let you know that the base works for receiving and interpreting the CAB-1 signals but uses the Legacy base to transmit. 

But I had 4 locomotives, 3 of which worked like yours does, but after I retuned the base, all 4 work great.

Well thank you John and Sinclair!

I swapped in my spare command base, and poof, problems all solved.

The engine runs perfectly and all functions work just great.

So it seems that my original command base is slightly off frequency.

So a follow up question is just how do you go about re-tuning the command base?

Is this user doable?

Thanks,

Rod

threads like this one are what make this forum great.

Dale Manquen's Train Facts site has tuning instructions.  Here's the main page: http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=298

Here's the clip of the actual tuning instructions.

If the frequency tuning of the Base oscillator shifts away from the nominal value, the receivers in the locomotives may have a reduced sensitivity. Re-tuning L8 is a bit risky, but sometimes this is necessary. Using the least sensitive locomotive as a reference, press the horn/whistle button on the CAB-1. Use a plastic screwdriver to adjust L8 back and forth until you determine the extremes of the adjustment range that will activate the horn/whistle. Now adjust L8 to the middle of this adjustment range. Check all you other locomotives. (You could have just one bad locomotive and a good Base!)

And turn the screw just a tiny bit each time.  I think my least sensitive locomotive, my son's HHP-8, only worked in a 60 deg range, so my Big Boy was even less.  Once I centered it on the HHP-8's range my Big Boy worked just fine.  It's also very helpful to mark the screw and the screw's housing before you turn it.  This'll give you a visual indicator to judge things by.

Great advice. Thanks a bunch.

Rod