Lionel 14186 AVC Quits without warning*fixed* operator error?

Rick, a random failure doesn't indicate they're prone to failure, but it can happen.  Although you say it's only a couple years old, it's been around ten years since it was manufactured, so it's not that new.  Even sitting on the shelf can degrade certain aspects of electronic equipment.  It may be a simple connection issue, no way of knowing without additional diagnostics.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Rick, a random failure doesn't indicate they're prone to failure, but it can happen.  Although you say it's only a couple years old, it's been around ten years since it was manufactured, so it's not that new.  Even sitting on the shelf can degrade certain aspects of electronic equipment.

If I were to replace it John. I purchased it here at a steep discount. They can still be found very reasonable.

In your professional electronics opinion.Would it be worth trying another one?

Or at this point, given the age would you advise something newer like the Legacy PM, so I'm not having this conversation again in another 2 years hopefully?

Well, truthfully, I'd probably buy a Legacy PM since it doesn't require a wired serial connection, and I see the AVC is going for more than the Legacy PM.  I see the Legacy PM for $109.19 on Amazon with free Prime shipping.

I'd first simply open up the AVC to see if it's something simple...

As I was letting my dinner digest. I pulled up the pdf manual for the AVC unit and read through the instructions again.

I went downstairs and "reprogrammed" it and it's now good as new. I swear I tried reprogramming it and it wouldn't take the i.d.# earlier.

I have no idea what happened. The only thing I can think of is when toggling from command to conventional on my TPC unit to run some MTH engines. I may have inadvertently addressed the AVC unit and screwed up the programming. 🤔

Now if only there was a magic fix for that numberboard on my mallet..😉

That was even simpler than I imagined.

Give me that Mallet, that will fix the number board, it'll never bother you again!

I'm sure you would John, but the UPS guy would damage 10 other things getting it over to you, lol!