pm-1with 180watt starts by itself

The throttle knobs on the old cab 1 controllers have been known to go bad over time, losing the "zero point" causing locos to creep.

 

I actually had a new one out of the box that would cause the loco to take off at full speed.

 

One of the main reasons I upgraded to legacy.

Rick, TR1 Aux 0 turns the PM off, so the CAB-1 is out of play at that point?  Do you have a lighted lock on, or lighted cars on the track?

 

From what you are saying power goes off, but later comes on by itself?  G

Dad alway taught us to unplug the transformer when not running the trains.  The PowerHouse has a switch on it, too.

I have 6 lighted PE cars and also 2 k-line lighted lock-ons.
And two 153 contactors for flashing crossing lights.

FMH,

 

After TR 1 aux 0, hit eng 1 aux 0, this will eliminate the problem.

 

Art

 

  

I agree with Rob. poor practice to leave transformers powered up.

 

How does that work?  TR1 AUX1 0 turns track voltage off.  Eng1 Aux1 0 resets an engine, but the engine has no power at this point.  G

Some of you guys crack me up.
I usually always shut down everything with the Cab-1 and then manually shut down the bricks on my ZW-c and then shut of power strips.

Poor practice or not, it is not supposed to happen.

First time was a mistake. Thought I turned off the brick after shutting off Powerhouse.
Did not shut off power strip because the village lights are plugged into it.

The other times I was in the room watching TV with the Cab-1 less than a foot away.
How is that poor practice?  And as they say" What does that have to do with the price of eggs?"

How about some feed back based on the current technology, not what your Dad told you to do 30 years ago. And not trying to be a wise guy either.
I could of posted on the main post if I wanted non answer responses.
Thanks.

Has happened to me, only it was just enough voltage to turn on the lights, not to move any trains.

 

I think Dale knows the cause, I want to say its because of the big red knob.

 

Aux1, then zero, or the red triangle are two good choices.

 

And why am I doing this on Christmas morning, I came here to wish everyone Merry Christmas! and get back to the family ........

All this happened after Tr 1, Aux1, 0.

halt button is not really designed as a shut off switch.
Train runs very slowly. I was thinking that the 180 watt brick would not have to work as hard a the CW-80.
And the Cab-1 works great on my TMCC layout and with my ZW-C on a conventional loop.
I am suspecting that the PM-1 does not actually shut off but remains powered by the brick. Somehow the voltage clamp is leaking current.
Not sure why. My other one is the 135 watt version, so I can not set up a true control to compare to.

To test your theory, after using TR 1 AUX1 0, remove the batteries in the remote.  If the train still moves the Power Master does have an issue.  If it doesn't then maybe the CAB-1 has issues with the throttle.  I would have thought after putting the cab-1 down it would go to sleep.  If you did hit ENG and a # that would prevent the Throttle from talking to the PM.  G

G,

 

 When you hit Eng 1 Aux 0 the CAB 1 will not activate the PM anymore until you hit TR 1 again.

 

Art

 

Set the Powermaster to 32 speed steps.

 

We had this problem with our club Christmas layout and this fixed it.

 

Turn on Power

Remove the bottom cover on the Cab-1 remote

Press buttons for track 1

At bottom of remote press the L button

Press Set

Place cover back on and run trains

How exactly do you do that?  AFAIK, the PowerMaster only has 32 speed steps in conventional mode. 

That is what I thought also. But this is not the case try changing it. When set to M or H it takes many more turns on the knob. That places the starting movement of the engine with very little movement of the knob. A very slight vibration with the remote setting on the table would cause engines to start moving. When set to L problem was gone. I had to do a lot of searching to find this out for the PM-1's

I think that is momentum set points.  G

I'm 99% sure that the PM-1 only has 32 speed steps.  As GGG states, that sets the momentum or the speed that the steps change.  I'm sure that Lionel would have been singing it from the rooftops if the original PowerMaster had finer steps.

 

Of course, maybe it does, but I sure never heard about it.  I don't have any currently to do a test...

 

Learn something new every day.
Thanks Art.

Even after Aux1 0, the throttle is still active.  Just setting it down or nudging accidently is enough to start a train moving.
Pressing Eng # after Aux1 0 disables the knob.

Good to know.  Have two Cab-1s and two kids.
I had been teaching them to use the Aux1 0 feature as a safety when conventional trains are not actually moving. Bad advice I guess.

So again true to form, Lionel documentation is somewhat confusing if not incorrect on this issue. Not as blatant as the loco manuals listing features that are not on that model.
No major damage.