Near the end of battery life in an LC+ remote, its signal transmission range drops. When an LC+ loco stops running even though its remote is on, and begins beeping as if the remote is not working, change the batteries before assuming anything else is wrong. Changing to fresh batteries will restore its range.
Some Details
1) An LC+ loco will continue doing whatever it is doing (chuffing or rumbling at idle an dnot moving, or chuffing or rumbling and running at its set speed if moving) for ten seconds after losing the signal from its remote. After ten seconds without a signal from its remote, the loco halts and stops making its chuffing or diesel rumble, and about a second later begins to beep, indicating it has lost the remote's signal . You can check this on you loco by setting it to running and then turning off the remote. All seven of mine do this at exactly the same delay - ten seconds - regardless of speed or distance from remote to loco, so I think it is a designed-in feature.
2) Keep in mind that LC+ communication between loco and remote is two way (I don't know if it is or is not on Lionchief, but with Lionchief Plus is).
- If the loco is not receiving the remote's signal, it beeps.
- If the remote does not sense that the loco is on the track and powered up, its red light blinks very rapidly.
3) When the remote has fresh batteries the two can send and receive signals over at least forty to fifty feet, even through sheetrock and wood walls. That distance falls to only twelve to fifteen feet - maybe less - when the batteries are weak. I do not know if this distance drops gradually over the life of the batteries, although I suspect it stays the same until near the end and then range drops fairly rapidly.
Exactly what happens on my layout when a remote has weak batteries and how I interpret the details. The farthest point of my mainline is twenty-four feet from where the remote normally sits when the trains are running. That point is a a curve at the far end of my layout where my mainline turns and heads back toward my operating stations. The train always stops there, ceases to chuff, and a second later begins beeping. At this point, transmission range has dropped to less than fifteen feet: holding the still operating-but-with-weak-batteries remote in my hand, I can walk toward the loco and it continues to beep until I get to within about twelve feet. Why? The loco was 24 feet away where it stopped, but it lost its signal ten seconds before that, while still heading away from me at about a foot per second (a scale 33 mph - that's about what I normally run them at). When I get within twelve to ten feet, the loco stops beeping and starts up again, and the remote will operate it as long as I stay alongside. Changing the batteries restores its transmission distance. This has happened seven times now. Battery life seems to be somewhere around 100 to 250 operating hours. I actually have not kept track too well.
3) Transmission distance with fresh batteries is at least fifty feet as the radio signal travels.
4) When the batteries are weak, signal transmission distance gets too short to cross to the far side of the layout. On my layout that farthest point is 24 feet away. However, the loco does not necessarily stop
The batteries in LC+ remotes last a long time. I change them once every three months or so and run each of my LC+ locos up to 15 hours a week, so I'm guessing 100 - 200 hours of operation.
