TMCC locomotive has sounds when powered up even before pressing start up button

Is the 9 volt battery low?

No battery in locomotive.

If the sound comes on before hitting any keys on your CAB remote, the engine (specifically, the sound system) thinks it is in conventional mode. Does your track power come up instantly with a pop-on voltage--in other words, does it jump from 0VAC to around 6VAC, or is it gradually coming on 0V...1V...2V..etc.? 

Try cleaning your track. I noticed when the tender starts up with sounds and I hear the tick, tick, tick noise the engine is not receiving any power. 

Next check for a dead spot in this area.

 

Cleaning the track helped.  Don't know why I did not try that.  Thanks for the tip.  I still get the staticky sound when powering down, but seems to be working normally other than that.

Had you thought about adding the 9v battery into the tender, that should help maybe?

PRR2818:

A battery is NOT need for TMCC engines when operated in command control.

I know it is not needed but you would then get the shut down sounds etc. and not have an issue with dirty track.

 

That was my thinking, to help narrow down the sound issues.

You get the shut down sounds by hitting Aux 1 and 5. No battery needed.

I have that same issue with NYC Mogul.
Tried replacing the speaker, receiver, harness and battery.
Everything but the soundboard. Which I suspect but not really interested in spending the money.
It makes that noise before I address engine and after shutdown.
None of my other TMCC engines do that.
It does not actually start up with sounds. Just the static and ticky ticky.
It seems to go away or at least be acceptably masked when it is running or idling.
I usually shunt it off to a siding that I can turn off power to when not using or put it back on the shelf. Otherwise I love the sound and since modifying the smoke unit, it smokes up a storm b

If you want to send me the sound board, I can test it independently.  If this is a RS4 board, I can either repair it or replace it pretty cheaply.

Hi John,
Where do I send?

Send an email to my profile address and I'll return my address.  You have no email address in your profile.

Won't both sound boards be required to test this along with the R2LC to see if a signal is not being sent?  G

I can test any individual TMCC board in my test setup.  I have a complete TMCC locomotive package on a board, I just plug in the board I'm testing.

 

Truthfully, it would probably be best to just test them all anyway.

 

So do I.  Having all the boards was my point, because I thought the RS Power Supply Board recognized the Serial Data, not the RS board, but I am not 100% sure on that.  G

My interpretation of the original problem was that the tender was getting power but the engine was not due to dirty track. If the R2LC was in the engine like many are then the audio boards would not be seeing serial data and think it was in conventional.

Also the OP didn't mention if this has a wireless tether or not. Maybe there is an alignment problem on the drawbar.

 

Pete

I have an early TMCC bay window caboose (that I converted from Erie to SP), that makes sounds without any intervention. You address it using ENG commands. Point is, it is conceivable a Lionel product could make a sound before you press a key on your remote.

I don't think it's the P/S board.

 

 

To avoid confusion.
The Op has a TMCC Bershire with a tether.
Mine is an IR wireless tether.
The Mogul has Odessey and I believe RS5.
Really tight fit in the engine.
I think just about everything is in the tender.
Except the Fan driven smoke unit and the glowing firebox.

Now I am pretty sure it is RS4
Made in 04

Might make the most sense to ship the entire tender.

Take a RS power board from another tmcc engine and swap them. This will indicate which board is bad. I suspect the power board is bad.

 

Bill

Bill has the answer, first thing I do is test all the boards to see where things stand. 

 

John, You realize that the RS Board pin 10 is connected to the RS Power Supply pin 10 via the mother board?  I think Bill is confirming that the PS should be checked first.  Maybe Jon Z can validate.  G

FMH had good advice about this.  For most steam the command board and motor driver are in the engine, and the Sounds are in tender.  So you need good communication between the engine and the tender via the tether or IR tether.

If you have control over the engine than you know the R2LC or R4LC is probably good.  Than you need to make sure the communication between engine and tender is good.  For Lionel with IR tethers you can swap tenders to see if it works with another engine and vice versa.  If the tender doesn't work with a good engine and a good tender works with your engine, you have isolated the problem to the tender.  Either it's tether wiring or one of the boards.

 

Swapping in similar boards as Bill mentioned can isolate the issue.  G

Can't argue with testing all the boards, that's certainly the path of least resistance.  Debugging is simply eliminating possibilities until only one remains, then you fix it.

Bill, I don't know for sure but it does via pin 10 on the mother boards I have seen.  One of the boards has to determine if in the Command Mode or conventional and also have to ignore offsets when in Command.  From my looks at the boards, it seemed like the Power Supply was set up to do this, while the RS board is processing the sounds and features on command.  Again, I am not sure.  Why did you recommend change the Power Supply vice RS board?  G

G, your barking up the wrong tree. In both cases the sounds work when the engine is addressed. They are just noisy before the fact and sometimes come on when not addressed. If there were no sounds when addressed then there might be a problem with the serial data line but that doesn't appear to the case here.

I would ask both posters to look at their audio power boards and check to see if there is a metal shield around the toroid coil. The early boards did not have these and could cause interference with the R2LC signal.

 

Pete

The reason I suggested the power board is from past experience. Most of the time the its the power board. The RS boards receives serial via pin ten, no connection to pin ten on power board. The power board detects DC offset, when this board goes bad, its telling the sound board we are in conventional. The sound board is receiving serial data from the R2LC-R4LC telling it we are in command mode, don't start. When this happens you have the weird noises until the start command is issued.  

 

 

Bill 

I have this problem with my TMCC system occasionally. The socket where my TMCC power supply plugs in has intermittent contact to the ground. Sometimes all the sounds come on the instant I hit the power switch on the powerhouse transformer. When this happens, I unplug everything, then plug everything back in. After doing this, the locomotives stay silent until I address with the CAB-1 when I turn on the power.

This also happens to the power board with the shield.

 

Bill

I just checked three different tender RS boards, and none of them have the serial data on pin 10 of the power supply board.  I truthfully had never thought to check this before as I just presumed that there was no reason for the serial data to go to the power supply

Pete, I was beyond the initial issue.  Even so, If you read his post it wasn't clear that he had command control of engine sounds.  He just had sounds.  So more detail would have been helpful.

 

I have a diesel board that has continuity between Pin10 of the RS and PS board.  Those diagrams don't show all the connections.  I have seen Lionel, TA and other units with lots of additional features tapped off the Tender boards.  Hence my question about where Command Serial data is detected to inhibit offsets from driving whistle and bell. G

Bill, Does this contradict?  If the PS detects offset and tells the RS board it is in conventional or Command, it has to see Serial data or not to determine what to tell the RS board no?  Again, I have a diesel motherboard with continuity between pin 10s on the RS and PS section. I will check a few more, including some steam. 

Again, I don't know for sure, but it would be nice to know.  G

G,

 

   Whats the part number of your motherboard that has continuity between the 10s

 

Bill

Bill,  My error, I must have been grazing pin 8s too.  No continuity between 10s.  G