Odyssey engines-turning on and off?

To my knowledge, you can't turn the Odyessy off with an engine with a switch? But I'm almost always wrong. . .

I also don't think an Odyssey without an on/off switch can be turned off with a Cab 1 or 2. Even the new Legacy engines have an on/off switch for their speed control. If their Odyssey systems could be turned on and off with a Cab 1 or 2, it seems they wouldn't need an on/off switch.

There was a pretty long thread about two months ago about running Legacy and Odyssey 1 engines together. See if you can find that. Maybe someone else has a little more information on that thread. It's a pretty complicated topic.

I run TMCC engines with Legacy on the same track with no problems.I download the Iegacy generic modules into the TMCC engines which lets them run in the legacy enviroment.Hope this helps
Mikey

quote:

Originally posted by mikey:
I run TMCC engines with Legacy on the same track with no problems.I download the Iegacy generic modules into the TMCC engines which lets them run in the legacy enviroment.Hope this helps
Mikey

The modules just set the info on the info tabs in the cab2; they do not download anything into the engines. You can just set it to tmcc in the info menu without using the module. Setting to tmcc does just that, but doesn't enable a tmcc engine to be run using the Legacy format.

Ted, good thread. I was just trying to run a legacy and a tmcc in a lashup and it was not so smooth. I'll give this a try.

The original Odyssey engines that do not have an on/off switch can't be run in Command Mode with Odyssey off. You need to set both engines to run in TMCC mode to create an MU.

This has been covered before, I believe the TMCC loco must be the "lead" loco. Legacy locos are more compliant as their "back driveable" gears allow them to coast.

Rick-that is what I thought is how you put them together-TMCC engine in the lead as the Legacy engine recognizes that the engine in the lead is running at 32 steps.

Yes, this was talked about 2 months ago. I started that thread.

Chuck-I have the key sequence written down by my layout and will post it another day- have to find it. I was told you can turn odyssey off and back on with the key sequence. If both Legacy and TMCC units have odyssey off, you should be able to run those diesel engines together as one. If not, there is where MTH has Lionel beat. You can put their type of engine together with DCS with no troubles.

Jeff-I'm still trying to get these Conrail engine to play nice with each other. I'm converting a MTH proto one Conrail SD-80 to TMCC with an ERR motor driver board which I have not completed yet. I am hoping to run my Legacy U30C Conrail, Lionel Conrail SD-80 odyssey and the converted MTH SD-80 with ERR as a triple lash-up. If that is not able, I believe the ERR can be set to 32 steps and run with the Lionel SD-80 TMCC which is 32 steps.

Thanks for all the responses.

Chuck had a lot of very good information on the earlier thread I mentioned.

Mikey, in connection with your comment, the complication is not in running Odyssey 1 and Odyssey 2 together on the same track, but rather what happens when you attempt to MU Odyssey 1 and Odyssey 2 engines.

Then there's the question of whether the Odyssey 1 engine has an on/off switch or not - do you run it with the switch on or off? And how do you set the Odyssey 2 engine, on or off? What if the Odyssey 1 engine doesn't have a switch? And what about running a TMCC engine without Odyssey with an Odyssey 2 engine? How about with an Odyssey 1 engine? Are the switches on or off? How do you run a TMCC engine with an Odyssey 1 engine that doesn't have an on/off switch? And how about MUing with an EOB-equipped engine?

As I said earlier, it gets complicated.

quote:

I was told you can turn odyssey off and back on with the key sequence.

If that's the case please post the sequence. The original manuals for the early release Odyssey equipped loco's are pretty clear about the engine only running with Odyssey enabled when in command mode.

Odyssey System Command operation

While in the Command Control environment, the speed control feature of the Odyssey System is always on. When turning the throttle, the speed of the locomotive will respond to each signal from the Command Base. For example, Address the locomotive and slowly turn the throttle. The first flash of the red light on the Command Base corresponds to the first speed step. This is the slowest speed of the locomotive.

Note that if you are using the Legacy system and CAB-2, the engine can be run in TMCC mode and there will be linear speed control and no Ody-Lurch on Odyssey one equipped locos. These is no need to disable Odyssey in this case.

IMO I would never, regardless of what Lionel says, expect many TMCC and Legacy engines to MU properly. There are just too many variables with the TMCC engines.

Can it be done, yes only if you find the right combination of engines. Can it be done with all, nope, half my TMCCs won't MU with other TMCCs just too many differences.

Will all my Legacy engines MU. Haven't found any that won't.

Good luck Ted I hope you have success.

Off- Aux 1 Brake 7 Brake

On- Aux 1 Brake 9 Brake

Now hopefully Lionel or Mike Reagan will chime in as the question is... Can you do this to odyssey engines that do NOT have an on-off switch or this only can be used with odyssey engines with a switch as an alternative means?

My PRR PA1 Oddessy engines do not have an on-off switch. These were the first Oddessy engines built along with the UP Turbines that year. With TMCC the powered A unit would buck against the Powered B unit if the were not running on perfectly clean track after the two were completely serviced and cleaned. With the Legacy base I can run them in Cab 1 mode and they work great toghether. The explanation I got was Cab 1 mode has absolute speed steps were as TMCC does not. I will have to try the Shutoff sequence next time I have these two engines out.

Forest

quote:

The explanation I got was Cab 1 mode has absolute speed steps were as TMCC does not.

That's completely backwards. CAB-1 is relative speed steps, TMCC is absolute speed steps. If they are running well with the CAB-2 set to CAB-1 mode there was probably something wrong with your original CAB-1 and/or command base. The CAB-1 was released with the PowerMaster about a year before the Command Base was released, aka the only thing it could really control were PowerMasters.

A good reason not to post at 2:00 am in the morning. I will run the engines again and see which way they worked best.