Lionel Legacy failure - seeking ideas

How about the Train Brake slider on the left?  Is that all the way up?

@Peter posted:

I have fresh batteries in the remote. I have power with lights on the Legacy command base. I have track power on (18V) measured by meter. I have two Legacy equipped locomotives, one steam, one diesel with programming and ID set in the Legacy system. Both engines are in Run mode. Both engines are making the basic sounds at "idle".

With that background, neither engine responds in any way to the Remote with either engine selected. I know about the engine Power button on the remote, equivalent to the "Boost" key in old TMCC, but still no response. I am out of ideas and looking for your ideas about things to try to make this work. It used to work until the power supply to the base failed and was replaced. This failure wiped out the engine IDs and I used the engine specific orange modules to rebuild the engine info.

What else to look for or try - this may well be user error, but what error? Thanks,

Peter Bowler

Does the horn, bell, crew talk, etc. work ?

What wall wart did you use to replace the old one ? My recollection is that the Legacy power supply contains specific parts and technical specifications and that a generic wall wart may not work.

Yes to Brake Slider; As to Wall power it was sent me by Lionel Customer Service and I must assume it meets their specs. It is different in appearance from original, is larger in size  at the plug into AC end. My track power wire to Legacy base goes to MTH Z4000 + side, then to the track. It worked prior to this glitch. I could try hooking track power direct to track or to a Lionel transformer as test experiments but have not tried it yet.

Answering the rest of question: nothing at all works from the remote except when I push the horn/whistle button on Z4000 the horn/whistle works on both the Legacy diesel and steam locomotive. What does that tell me? Perhaps this confirms that the remote is not sending any signal at all to either locomotive for whatever reason despite engine programming and Run mode.

If the new base power supply physically looks different I bet they sent the wrong one. In 15 years that power supply has never changed. Also are the locomotives silent as if waiting to be told what to do or are they starting up in conventional mode with sounds as soon as you power up the track?

I moved this to the proper forum since it is a discussion about Lionel Legacy and NOT 3-rail scale modeling (see the definition).

Is the ground (signal) wire from the command base attached to common on the transformer?

@Peter posted:

My track power wire to Legacy base goes to MTH Z4000 + side, then to the track. It worked prior to this glitch.

The signal wire from the base goes to the negative or U terminal on the transformer. I hope by putting power to the base like that didn't damage it.

Doug

Both engines are making the basic sounds at "idle".

Peter Bowler

That speaks volumes that the engines are not seeing the TMCC signal from the legacy base and are starting up in conventional.  There should be no sounds if they are receiving the signal and awaiting to be addressed by the remote to do something.  What power supply did they send???  Pic of both sides if possible.

@trnluvr posted:

The signal wire from the base goes to the negative or U terminal on the transformer. I hope by putting power to the base like that didn't damage it.

Doug

There shouldn't be any damage but you are correct.  If he has it going to the center rail, that's a problem.  Outside rail or common is where it should be.

I would try:

1. Hook your track power up directly from the Z-4000 output terminals to the track.

2. Connect the Legacy "one-wire" directly from the Legacy base to an outside rail.

3. Make sure you turn the Legacy remote on first and wait a few seconds before turning track power on.

If you have a TMCC base and cab-1, try that so you know it is not your track or engines as that will narrow it down to your legacy base/ remote.
As for the power supply they sent you, you said it is not the same as the large power pack that came with your legacy system?
A picture of it would help us do we can see what you have.

@trnluvr posted:

The signal wire from the base goes to the negative or U terminal on the transformer. I hope by putting power to the base like that didn't damage it.

The legacy Base has a blocking cap in the path from the track connection, so that wouldn't damage it.

First, the red light on the Base2 should blink when you send a command from the Cab2 (like turning the red knob on the Cab2) indicating that communication from Cab2 to Base2 is working. If the red light doesn't blink, you may need to check/fix the channel the Base2 is set to, and the channel the Cab2 is set to, to make sure they match. Procedure is on Page 78 of the Legacy v1.6 manual.

If you don't have the Legacy manual, you can download here https://www.lionelsupport.com/legacy-control-software

Darn, and I thought having to replace the bad copper oxide rectifier in my RW transformer was a bummer.

Thanks all! It is working now thanks to your suggestions. It proves again when I am stupid, I suffer! The issue was the wire going to wrong place, don’t know why I did not double-triple check, took for granted it was done same way before it went back to Lionel. It makes me a happy camper again!  Peter

This thread will prove useful to the next idiot who comes along in my footsteps!

Probably need to re-title this thread:  "My Failure Using Lionel Legacy"