no chuff on new l1 Mikado

@LNE Fan posted:

My new locomotive has no chuff effect.   All sound effects, smoke adjustment, coupler command etc. works from my cab 2.  I have reprogramed the engine several times, to no avail.  The engine is very quiet and smooth running.  Before I request warranty work, I am wondering what I might be missing.  Anyone have any suggestions?

This sounds almost like having RailSounds/SignalSounds switch set to SS when that was offered as a switch on older TMCC locomotives. A few possible things to try:

1) make sure on the Legacy Remote that the locomotive is set to use LRS (Legacy RailSounds)
2) make sure the volume is turned up for the engine sounds, I think these can be adjusted independently
    - bell or whistle + volume up/down adjusts over all volume
    - Aux1 + volume up/down adjusts the engine sounds
3) if there is a RS/SS switch on the tender, make sure it's on RS (but I doubt it has one)

I had a Legacy RailSounds board get delivered a while back that had only the whistle and bell programmed. I had to send it back and they reprogrammed it. So that could be a possibility I suppose.

@LNE Fan posted:

My new locomotive has no chuff effect.   All sound effects, smoke adjustment, coupler command etc. works from my cab 2.  I have reprogramed the engine several times, to no avail.  The engine is very quiet and smooth running.  Before I request warranty work, I am wondering what I might be missing.  Anyone have any suggestions?

I had a 2-8-0 Consolidation with very similar symptoms.  It turned out to be a miss alignment of the IR tether on the locomotive/tender. My solution was to move the IR sensors closer together and adjust the height of one of them to match the height of the other.  After that worked perfectly.  However, that would void the warranty. Hopefully someone has a non-voiding of warranty solution.

BTW, I also have the L1 Mikado, Santa Fe version. Nice locomotive.

Did not try the aux 1 volume up approach.  Will do that tonight.  I am set on the remote to use LRS. Tender has no switches that I saw.  I sort of discounted the IR as everything else is working fine, but I will closely investigate.  Thanks for the input so far.

An easy test is to put the tender on the layout by itself and power it up.

The tender should make idle sounds. If it does. It's not receiving the signal through the ir from the loco.

If it remains silent on the track when powered by itself.  The issue may lie in the tender electronics.

@RickO posted:

An easy test is to put the tender on the layout by itself and power it up.

The tender should make idle sounds. If it does. It's not receiving the signal through the ir from the loco.

As long as those engine sounds aren't muted.

If it remains silent on the track when powered by itself.  The issue may lie in the tender electronics.

I wonder too if the SS/RS switch pins are still there and are shorted out or something.

It's best to start with the exact Lionel product number so we're sure what we're debugging.  If this is a new release, there is no SS/RS switch, those disappeared in about 2011.

Do the tender background sounds start up as soon as you apply power to the track?

@rplst8 posted:

I wonder too if the SS/RS switch pins are still there and are shorted out or something.

The new electronics do not have SS/RS as an option.

Agreed on checking IR alignment, but if you can trigger dialog and the electrocoupler, then the IR is fine.

One way to check the volume settings is the LionChief APP connecting via bluetooth. You can check all the various volume sliders including the chuff.

Lastly, try a hard reset. The procedure is in the manual.

If nothing works, give us a call.

Thanks for all the response and help.  It was as simple as initially suggested to use the ALT1 key and volume control.  It is really great having this deep pool of knowledge available.

@LNE Fan posted:

Thanks for all the response and help.  It was as simple as initially suggested to use the ALT1 key and volume control.  It is really great having this deep pool of knowledge available.

Thanks for letting us know the outcome.  That should be the final step in any process.