VisionLine Triplex issue

@Ray Lombardo posted:

Can I ask a potentially silly question:  why would someone care about 4 digit addressing as compared to the traditional 2?  Are there folks with more than 99 locomotives?

Not Silly.  Not necessarily more than 99 engines, but overlap of road numbers which a lot of use to remember the ID.  Although with Rosters now in Cab3 app, that is sort of eliminated.

Plus, if I ever wanted to resell, I couldn't say it was fully functional and would probably have to sell it for less than I could possibly get.  Especially if the person I was selling to did have more than 99!

And to date there seems to be reports (although a lot less) with problems in 2 digit too.  So not sure anyone knows exact cause yet.

It would be hard to swallow a 2300.00 engine, that starts malfunctioning in 2 years and out of warranty and no parts.

@Sean's Train Depot posted:

Not Silly.  Not necessarily more than 99 engines, but overlap of road numbers which a lot of use to remember the ID.  Although with Rosters now in Cab3 app, that is sort of eliminated.

Plus, if I ever wanted to resell, I couldn't say it was fully functional and would probably have to sell it for less than I could possibly get.  Especially if the person I was selling to did have more than 99!

And to date there seems to be reports (although a lot less) with problems in 2 digit too.  So not sure anyone knows exact cause yet.

It would be hard to swallow a 2300.00 engine, that starts malfunctioning in 2 years and out of warranty and no parts.

That’s the most concerning of everything,  ‘out of warranty and no parts’.    My thought, better to be safe than sorry.  Get them addressed ‘now’ while the issue is on top of their list.

@Ray Lombardo posted:

Can I ask a potentially silly question: why would someone care about 4 digit addressing as compared to the traditional 2? Are there folks with more than 99 locomotives?

@Sean's Train Depot posted:

Not Silly.  Not necessarily more than 99 engines, but overlap of road numbers which a lot of use to remember the ID.  Although with Rosters now in Cab3 app, that is sort of eliminated.

I totally understand why you guys want to get them fixed. I would too. But the addition of four digit addressing is still a waste.

On the CAB-2 you could already assign a four digit cab number to the locomotive AND look it up by that number.  Sure, you were limited to 99 engines, but that's a really, really rich person's problem.

The added complexity of it is probably a lot of the reason there are so many problems. It harkens back to the K.I.S.S. principal in engineering. Keep It Simple Simon!

@rplst8 posted:

On the CAB-2 you could already assign a four digit cab number to the locomotive AND look it up by that number.  Sure, you were limited to 99 engines, but that's a really, really rich person's problem.

Clubs would disagree as well as a long time TMCC user.  Every engine, passenger car, crane cars, accessories, etc. requires a TMCC ID.  They can fill up fast.

@MartyE posted:

Clubs would disagree as well as a long time TMCC user.  Every engine, passenger car, crane cars, accessories, etc. requires a TMCC ID.  They can fill up fast.

Well, until everyone in the club buys locomotives with 4D addressing, it won't really change anything.

Club rosters are probably a mess. I know mine is. 4 digit addressing would help to sort things out and keep club members from stepping on each other’s toes. The problem is as it has been said that club members would need to run four digit locomotives, but also first of all the club would have to invest in a base 3, which my club doesn’t want to do.

@rplst8 posted:

Well, until everyone in the club buys locomotives with 4D addressing, it won't really change anything.

Well, that's the thing.  Remember, every single Legacy engine starting with Vol 2, 2024 catalog and forward will have 4 digit addressing.  So, it's not just this engine and it needs to be figured out or every engine going forward may have issues.

Dave Olson was kind enough to respond to my inquiry at Lionel regarding the Triplex fix. He said not all Triplexes will have to go back for the fix and that some are operating fine with 4-digit addresses without the fix. This is a big load off my shoulders as I still need to get my mainlines back in operation and then go through a backlog of trains to test out. Regarding 4-digit addressing, it is amazing how fast the preferred 2-digit addressing fills up or becomes a repeat, and I don't own that many engines; and then you start using the first two digits of a 4-digit cab number and then the last 2-digits, and pretty soon things get confusing.

And FWIW, when I was a young buck like some of you may be, packing up and shipping engines back to Lionel and MTH was a pain, but not a big deal in the grand scheme of life's chores.  The other negative aspect of shipping stuff is potential damage during shipping and handling, and the dreaded thought that will the engine come back with a new problem (it's happened a few times to me).

Is there a detailed list (spread sheet type) of the known problems with the controls of these engines that people can add too?

If not, I would really like to create / see one. One with column headers to indicate what devices were used, switch positions, etc.

I finally got mine out to test after the Christmas Holiday. Here is what I found with mine after two running sessions.  And yes, I tried to find issues.

• Power - MTH 4000 with Lionel power lock-on (used for fast trip in case of short)
• Control - Base 2 with Cab 2 both with latest software
• Bluetooth - 4D switch set to Bluetooth
• Android phone running Cab3 Bluetooth (version  1.1.047)
• Set the automated sounds using the Aux1 button
• Testing scenario - Switched back and forth between using the Cab3 Bluetooth and Cab2

Observations:

1. After setting the Aux1 automated sounds, there seems to be a different whistle type coming from the tender compared to the engine. This happened when pushing the Aux1 followed by the whistle on the Cab2 and cycling through the choices. After cycling through ~8 times, they would seem to sync up.  When I continued, they would be "strange" again, only to re-sync after about 8 times.  I activated the whistle on the Cab3 Bluetooth and it played the same sounds as the Cab2 (I don't think a person can change the whistle type using the Cab3 Bluetooth.) This all went away after the engine power was cycled.  This scenario was repeatable. I am not sure how many different sound sets there is on the Triplex whistle.
2. With the engine moving forward using the Cab3 Bluetooth (speed step ~6 of 32 on the Cab3, relatively slow speed) and then pressing the direction button on the Cab3, the engine direction would change, and start going the other direction at the same speed.  Throttle indication on the Cab3 showed off. It would "re-sync" if the throttle was moved on the Cab2 or on the Cab3 APP. Comments: This was repeatable, but not all the time. I could make this happen going in either direction. This may be a known issue with the APP, and not specific to the Triplex.
3. After using the Cab2 to control the Triplex for about 5 minutes, I switched to using the Cab3 Bluetooth APP. I pressed the direction button on the Cab3 several times fairly quickly in secession (not on purpose).  The reverse light came on the tender. It would not turn off when I pressed the direction button on the Cab3 APP.  When I throttled up using the Cab3 APP, the tender wheels were not in-sync with the engine wheel rotation.  With the tender wheels not moving the engine would drag the tender.  Changing the direction (via Cab3) I could get the tender wheels moving in one direction and the engine in the other. Changing directions again, I could get the tender wheels moving in the same direction as the engine, but again, not in-sync.  I then tried to correct the issue.  Using the APP, I disconnected the engine in the APP and tried to reconnected.  Same issue.  I again disconnected the engine and did a "re-scan".  To my surprise the Triplex came up along with engine ID 9999 (I think.  It could have been 0099??), so it showed two different "engines" I could connect with.   I connected to ID 9999 (no reference engine was listed with this ID) and had the same issue with the Triplex engine. At this point I cycled the power and I was able to run the engine with both the Cab3 Bluetooth APP and the Cab2.  I was not able to repeat this issue.
4. I turned off the Base2 (and Cab2) and used only the Cab3 Bluetooth APP.  The engine worked OK, but again was able to recreate issue #2 above. At times the wheels between the engine and the tender seemed out of sync, but was not able to tell for sure.  When starting from a stop, the tender wheels seemed to lag the action of the engine wheels. However, at steady state, the wheel seemed to be in-sync.

General comments:
When using the Cab3 Bluetooth APP, the engine seemed to have some issues.
When using just the Cab2 with Base2, I was not able to create any problems with the limited testing completed.

I really like the independent smoke effects between the front and rear exhaust. I.e., when the chuffs are out of sync, you will see the puffing match the sound in respective location (engine/tender).  This is not to say the wheels are out of sync.  This can be easily seen when the tender wheels slip and the puffs from the tender exhaust stack will be almost continuous.  The smoke units in the MTH version where tied together.

Hope this info helps.