Artson posted:Maybe I should have mention this before, as soon as you turn track power on the resistor comes on (low) you can turn it off at the controller or the switch under the cab it will shut down, I have some TMCC engines that do the same thing, so I thought nothing of it. I ordered another regulator, but what bothers me is the old regulator did the same thing, it had low smoke all the time, I did not try to push the more smoke button repeatedly so I don't know what would have happen. I bought the engine used, it's very nice, but who knows what happen in it's other life, maybe that's why they sold it.
I believe that the low smoke on start up is characteristic of TMCC and early Legacy. I forgot about this until I recently got a TMCC engine where the smoke remained on even after a shutdown; I always had to shutdown the smoke manually separate from the Railsounds system. My early Legacy FEF-3, with the same smoke unit as yours, behaves just like this. The smoke is on whenever the engine is on a powered track. By that I mean that there is power to the heater; the fan does not run until the engine moves.
As GRJ is saying that the AC Regulator is not retaining the smoke settings I can't second guess that. Why this is the case - well, that is another matter. I do know the chart he is referring to; I believe it is duplicated/explained in one of Mike Reagan's smoke unit videos. Even if your engine is used, any original defect or one created by use should be capable of diagnosis. The smoke units themselves are not rocket science.
What I certainly didn't remember is the command sequence GRJ sets out above for adjusting smoke settings. It would be worth trying those.
Failing that, maybe a new regulator will cure this issue. I hope so. I have seen so many variations of Lionel smoke units that honestly it is bewildering to try to figure them out. This is where I wish Lionel would explain, or have already explained, somewhere how the different variations actually function, particularly as they won't do repairs themselves any more.
