What does Legacy do in a dummy engine?

does it have a smoke unit?  that is all legacy controls in my Santa Fe F3 A dummy.

If its a "smart" dummy with electrocouplers, directional lighting and smoke then it looks like TMCC would do everything that legacy can do (at least this is what I get out of reading my DD35 dummy manual), albeit with some multi button combos on a cab-1 in place of a legacy icon. 

If its an engine shaped boxcar, then obviously there's no difference.

More importantly - What does a dummy do in a legacy engine?

 

Pete

Ideally, command control dummy units in my opinion should have smoke, lighting, sound and at least one electric coupler. Some units optionally have a deep base sound, but most units are completely void of any of these features to keep the costs down.

I guess if I deck out the dummy unit too much, you just might as well have a full locomotive which defeats the purpose...

I don't have many dummy units, preferring to have a matching powered unit for larger consist's.

 

The one dummy I have is a Legacy Conrail SD-80 that has smoke, directional lights, and electrocouplers.  No sound, which would be cool...

If it is used in a consist the ID and electronics included allow the couplers and lights to function as part of the consist. If in the middle of a consist neither coupler or lights are functional. If at the end of a consist either front or rear.   Front or rear head light works, Also front or rear coupler work.  The other light and coupler don't work via the consist programming.   At least that's the way it was with TMCC. 

If John was running a consist of (2) Conrail SD-80s, one powered, and one dummy, it (the consist) should function as one unit with reversing front/rear head lights and a front and rear coupler.  The middle lights and couplers between the two units should be off.  

 

Well, the couplers and headlights work like that, but there is a design flaw in the way these units handle the markers, so the red markers come on in the middle of the consist and not on the rear.  This happens no matter which way I orient the trailing locomotive.

 

I wrote Lionel and they explained it, normal operation for this model.  Not what I wanted to hear, so they just don't work 100% in the consist.  Apparently, the rear markers are wired to the front headlights, and vice-versa for the front markers.

 

Smoke and electrocouplers work properly, as do the headlights.  For some reason, the ditch lights on my trailing unit don't work either when it's going forward (powered in reverse obviously).  Lionel claimed those should work, but they don't work on mine.  If I just address the dummy as an engine, the lights work as they should.  I can also make the dummy the lead engine I guess, didn't try that.  There is some wisdom to making it the lead engine, it's best to have the beef connected to the remaining cars in the consist.

 

Too bad you can't update the firmware in these beasts...

They should also leave out the crew figures on the dummy units Not many people run the non powered unit as the leader. Unless there is a crew dead heading on  trailing unit, there shouldn't be anyone in there. Oh....maybe the brakeman taking a nap.

It makes the cost of the dummy go up for us dummies who want it!

 

As it turns out, there is no crew in my dummy unit, so I guess they heard you retroactively.

This flaw has been around for some time even in TMCC.   My set of Weaver E8 that I upgraded to EOB has bi-directional markers operated from the smoke out put since both have no smoke unit. Note that the programming is changed to Aux1 7 to get these markers to work.   I had to reverse the wiring at the smoke output terminal on the follow unit to get the red lights on the rear.  I beat on Mike Reagan, TAS at the time, he said it was a Lionel programming problem.  I've never run the pair as seperates, if I did I would have to change the wiring again.  The markers operate in the middle the way wire but the orientation green forward and red rear is correct in either direction.  

No can do in my case, I have a smoke unit.  However, I can probably come up with a simple circuit with a transistor switch when the headlight is off on one of them, the red markers come on.  Truthfully, the green markers on this model aren't really prototypical I would think anyway.  Maybe I should just eliminate them and switch the red color when the matching headlight isn't on.

I'm sure it can be fixed, but the annoying part is I shouldn't have to, I can understand for older stuff, but surely Lionel knows this isn't right and did by the time Legacy stuff came out!

For $400, I'd have expected dancing girls!   I think you're right, it should have had sound for that kind of money!