Hello again everyone. I have the Lionel Santa Fe F3 A-unit 6-14536 and I'm having troubles getting a good signal for the Legacy controller. I've removed the shell and ran the locomotive and it runs great but with the shell on the lights flash and it stops and goes randomly. I'm also running a Lionel Santa Fe B-unit 6-24516 and it gets a good signal with the shell on. Does anyone have any ideas on how to add a larger antenna to the F3 A-unit to receive a better signal. I've done what Mike Reagan from Lionel suggested in his video by running a ground to the home outlet. Does anyone produce a larger antenna that would help catch the signal? I've tried adding a wire down the inside of the shell connected to the factory antenna with little success. I also heard about adding the aluminum tape that is used on AC duct work. Any help would be appreciated.
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for me to get trouble free 990 response i ran a seperate ground wire from the electric water heater to the plug in, solderthe wire to the tab on a ground adaptor and then pluged the base into the ground plug. no problems now.
I normally just take about two feet of wire and coil it in the top of the shell and stick it with hot glue. Just make sure it doesn't obstruct flywheels or other parts sticking up.
If that doesn't work, I normally go looking for TMCC signal issues, either with the electronics or layout. For the 6-14536, I'd start by swapping the R2LC board and see if that changes the symptoms.
Hello again John I wanted to ask you I have another R2LC board part# R2LC-C11 can I use it to replace the R2LC-C08 board that's in the engine now to see if that helps my problem? The wire that your coiling up and gluing to the shell roof is it bare wire or just regular shielded wire? And by the way I sent my SF 3751 6-38055 out to finish the Super Chuffer board that you were helping me with. I got so frustrated when things didn't go right and I just want it to work for me. Again Thanks for your help and advice. Gary
No reason to use the C11 board, just use the stock C08. There's no difference in the TMCC receiving section of the two boards, they're the same hardware.
Hi John I just wanted to let you know that your suggestion to run a piece of wire inside the shell worked out great for me. I soldier the ends of the wire to the existing antenna then I ran it down both insides of the shell and the extra I coiled up and hot glued to the roof of the shell. I now don't have any issues with the signals. Thanks for your help. Gary
Great, glad that was the "silver bullet". Typically, more wire is the answer to a single engine where the electronics are not compromised.