TMCC Remote to Base Communication

1) Do you have only 1 TMCC signal wire attached to the track. It should be the wire from the Legacy base to the outside rail, the old style TMCC bases should not be wired to the rails at all

2) Have you tried removing the Y cable and the old bases and does the Legacy base work by itself?

3) Have you tried removing the Legacy base and wire the TMCC base directly to the track to see if the old base works?

Not sure how much support you will get from Lionel on the original TMCC bases, those are over 10 years old I believe. They have moved on.

1.  Yes only the Legacy Base is connected to the neutral rails.

2.  The Legacy Base works fine by itself

3. When the TMCC base is connected to the system by itself, the cabs still do not talk to the TMCC Base

I thought that I have done just about all of the trouble shooting I could think of.  I think based on neither Cab being able to talk to the Base that the Base is what is giving me trouble.

I had a spare Command Base and spare CAB-1 for sale (now sold). The Command Base was easily sitting around for 4+ years.

Before selling, I checked them out, they fired right up.

Perhaps you should disconnect and take the Command Base and CAB-1 away from the all the Legacy stuff, maybe to another room, and check it out. Divide and conquer.

Illinois,

I did not take it to another room but separated the TMCC and Legacy Bases by a good distance to see if there was any interference but neither remote worked with the base.  What I have not tried but I think interference is not the issue, is to reset the Channel on the Legacy Base.  What do you think of trying that?

If you want to try your hand at tuning the base, here's Dale's Lionel TMCC Command Base page.  It has instructions for tuning the base.

FWIW, tuning the base is for the 455khz signal, not the 27mhz CAB1 to base, so I'm not sure this is what you need.

Have you watched the base to make sure that it is getting the Cab-1 signals?  There is a red light on top of the base that will flash when it is getting the Cab-1 signals.  If it is flashing, then the remotes are talking to the base and the base hears it.  If it's not, then the base is not hearing the handhelds.  Are the handhelds beeping when you push buttons?

Are you using the Lionel TMCC base wall wart to do these tests?

Do the remotes have a faint beep when you press the buttons?

As Sinclair asks, with just the TMCC base plugged into the wall, does the red light on the base flash as you rotate the red throttle or when you depress the bell button?

Anyone near you have a TMCC set up?

AAAAH-HA.  The remotes are not beeping.  What is that a symptom of?  I replaced the batteries.  When I advance the throttle, the Red Light on the TMCC Base does not Flash.

Check the battery compartment very closely, there may be corrosion on one or more terminals preventing the batteries from making good contact.

Of course, you should also check the batteries for proper orientation while you're in there.

Controller number 1 of 2 is now working.  As you surmised the contacts had some corrosion on them.  I took sandpaper to them and they cleaned up nice.

Controller 2 is still a mystery.  Even though there was no apparent corrosion, I used some sandpaper on them just the same. No Luck, still no communicaton to the Base.  I got brave and removed the six screws on the back.  When I opened it I just cracked it to see if there was anything obvious, but there was not.  Opening it further I noticed a wire had come off what appears to be the "Speaker".  I do not think I pulled it off.  This may be the reason for NO sound, but, so I have it on my bench for some repair work.  Would this loose connection prevent the communication to the base?

No, that will just kill the sound.  I had one that the sounder died and I removed it, it still worked just fine.