Lionel tetherless connection

rtraincollector posted:

I tried search and it just didn't seem to bring me what I wanted. Has anybody had problems with Lionel's tetherless connection. 

I seem to remember it being referred to as a "wireless" tether/drawbar. Maybe try searching for that.

Top complaint with the Lionel wireless drawbar is mechanical, occasionally they'll rid up and the sensors get out of line and you start getting issues with chuffs and controlling whistle/bell.

Thanks was considering buying one but wasn't sure, and I think I will stay away from them for now anyway

I'm not sure why you'd avoid them.  The Lionel IR link for their steam is very reliable, certainly not a major cause for concern.  Just because there is an occasional issue with a feature, that's hardly reason to avoid the product.  Using that logic, we wouldn't be buying any of the model train products!

Misunderstood 

Bill I have several and they are all reliable, Jump in and get one or two.

I went ahead and Bought a LIONEL #6-28051 BALTIMORE & OHIO EM-1 2-8-8-4 LOCOMOTIVE & TENDER-EX

i like the lack of a thick "scale" WIRE coming from  the engine into the tender.

I tell visitors that the wire is connected to a scale toilet in the engine cab for the engineers and firemans use.

Not to wander off - but Fora are made for that, in truth - I dislike the non-wire tethers as they marry you to a fixed-length drawbar, short of a more-bother-than-you-would-like cut/paste revision project. And almost all factory drawbars on 3RO steamers are too long to Olympic broad jump too long. Painful to see, sometimes. Yes, I know why they are unrealistically long, but for those of us with 072 curves and better, we could use some shorter, not-as-incorrect drawbars. A wire tether and a metal drawbar can allow you make this better with a drill and a bit. (Also, the MTH "wireless" tethers are not wireless - they just have flat, circuit board wires.)

Which brings me to this comment above:

"i like the lack of a thick "scale" WIRE coming from  the engine into the tender."

Steam locos can be connected to their tenders by all sorts of pipes, hoses, stokers, cables, and so forth. The traditional wire tether was a missed modeling opportunity, it seems to me. Its execution tended toward the clunky, though the slim Weaver and Williams types on their brass locos was quite unobtrusive.

Wire tethers are also no mystery to understand or fix.

I find no mystery about wireless tethers either.   I will admit, it's a bit more surgery to shorten the IR wireless drawbar.

I have a recently produced Lionel L2a Mohawk The sound drops out occasionally in the same two spots on the layout

I strongly suspect the root cause to be Tether IR interference caused by the Azatrax IR LED and sensor for the crossing signal which are mounted facing up under the tracks

I was thinking of using plastic wire loom to shield the tether assembly/connection

Does anyone here have experience with this issue or a better solution?

Legacy engines have the IR devices above the drawbar. Less likely that a beam from under the drawbar would affect the signal. Why not wrap them in tape to make sure thats the problem. More likely there is break in power and there is no battery to maintain the sound.

Pete

@Cogen1981 posted:

I have a recently produced Lionel L2a Mohawk The sound drops out occasionally in the same two spots on the layout

Sound loss is typically caused by a loss of power to the tender. Usually caused by dirty track, or a dead spot in the track like those on some turnouts that lack power to all center rails.

If your track is clean, and there are no voltage issues. An easy first test is to power the tender up by itself. It will make idle sounds. You can push the tender across the trouble spots and see if sounds are still lost.

Fwiw. I have the azatrax i.r. detectors setup for across the track detection, and have had no issues.

@Norton posted:

Legacy engines have the IR devices above the drawbar. Less likely that a beam from under the drawbar would affect the signal. Why not wrap them in tape to make sure thats the problem. More likely there is break in power and there is no battery to maintain the sound.

Pete

Thanks for the response Pete

Next time I operate the layout, I will cut power to the Azatrax sensor system to prove out this theory.

I seriously doubt it's the Azatrax system, it's the classic issue with losing power momentarily.  The new RailSounds board also omitted the battery connection, so my nifty YLB battery replacement doesn't work for these.  However, I went back to the drawing board and worked out a fix for the new Legacy sound boards.

New Legacy Steam Locomotive Sound Issue and Fix

I laid in a bunch of the caps for future repairs.