Here's and idea. Since for some reason the mere sight of my call sign seems to strike fear into the hearts of many, and since I chose an end around to try to get some help only to have my topic moved to the what was considered a proper topic area, no problem, at least someone read it, and since I got one reply from a nice person JPS on the O27 topic page that basically said he was at his wits end with MTH and all of us needed to yell loudly and often to get their attention. I don't see that I have any more to lose than I already have. So consider this my way of yelling loudly and often.
I managed to get that finicky app to work again by pressing a button on the wifi unit under the letter WPS. After that, it worked what I thought was fine. Before my problems began I had decided, even though I see no reason other than, "wow, cool, neat, looks like a real train", to build a Lashup. Or as some prefer to call it, a Multi-Unit connection. Some folks calls it a sling blade, I call it a Kaiser blade. Anyway, the problems began there. I just didn't know it yet. I hooked two engines together, the UP engine was the Head and the BNSF was the Tail. The head was set to Forward, and the Tail to Reverse. Seemed logical to me. I had done this before using the direct remote or dedicated remote that came with the TIU. It worked fine. I ran into problems when my two lashed engines began strolling off the beaten path because I left a switch open. I stopped them. I tapped the R icon to go in reverse, and when I began tapping the + key gently, they just sat there. The multi-unit connection wouldn't go backwards. So I deleted the lashup, used my hands to move the engines back to their normal locations, and all kinds of crap started happening.
For one I had to shut off the system to move the engines. Every time I try to set an engine with the power on I throw up sparks and it kicks the breaker. So I just turn everything off and do it that way. Upon turning the system back on the wifi connected yet not connected fight started. So I set the tablet down, got the old school remote, fired it up, and all was well. So I re-built my lashup using the old school remote and it all went off without a hitch. Same engines, same head, same tail, same directional set up, head going forward, tail set to reverse. Ran them forward so the head could have a turn, no problem, 40, 50 miles per hour. Stopped them with DIR, the lights changed, and the tail engine ran the other way just fine. So something is a miss with the lashup feature on the wifi app. Takes some getting used to. Especially when you are ready to end the lashing part and go back to individual use of each engine.
The most dumbfounding part was later when I ran them again using the wifi, this was after I sent out my plea, pushed the reset button. I ran the BNSF train only to discover my horn and bell wouldn't work. I tried everything. I deleted the engine and re-entered it at least three times. Finally I just went back and got old school, fired it up, started the BNSF engine, and there was my horn and bell back. Got the wifi fired up again, this time without problems, and when I started the BNSF engine, there was my horn and bell. So something hinky happened when I created that lashup and made it the slave engine to the UP engine. I'm aware the lights and horn and bell won't work on the engines attached to the head engine in a lashup. But it was my experience once you deleted the lashup and went back to using them individually, they would respond accordingly. You might have to shut one down and restart it, but respond accordingly. This was my first experience with a dead horn and bell.
Oh I've also found several other interesting and unnecessary features of the great and wonderful wifi. Granted it's nice, when it isn't on drugs. The switch screen idea makes those babies much easier to handle, especially when you have 19 of them to navigate. As fast as you can tap a switch name and hit the chosen arrow icon, it opens or closes and you can move on to the next one immediately, no waiting for the old school to react and return you to the list. However, you can't use the number pad to jump from switch 1 to switch 14 quickly. If 14 is off the screen, you have to scroll down to find it. Old school let you scroll up or down and use the number pad to type 1-4 and it jumped to 14 immediately. I'm not concerned about internal issues, it's when my tablet says you have connection, but my app says otherwise. Barry wrote a guide book on the subject, I guess i'll have to buy that one too. MTH sure didn't write anything telling you how to use it. One quick sheet installed in the wifi box telling you how to hook it up, and immediately you are an expert. YouTube has a few beta version videos that show you what it looks like and how to run a train, but I've found nothing on youtube or the MTH site that shows you how to use the premier version.
Want my half a penny worth. When MTH forces the wifi issue by discontinuing any service where the old school version is concerned...….go back to using transformers alone. I don't see Lionel changing its tune about playing with the MTH engines any time soon, so switching to Legacy won't help. Maybe i'm wrong. Maybe I have this all wrong. Well I won't know that until someone gets miffed enough at me to respond and tear me a new one and enlighten me to what I am doing wrong. I don't mind eating crow, even if it's raw. But I'm not going to go out and kill my own bird. I request my crow be served.
John
