Battery installation kills sound on legacy diesel loco- Any ideas?

Don't know about the battery being involved, but others have somehow turned the sounds all the way down and had to turn them up again. Do you have the instruction booklet? I think there are a couple of things you can try. One is to press AUX1 and the #1 repeatedly, which is sound volume up on the Legacy CAB 2.

I believe I had this same issue a few months back. See the following thread. Unfortunately, in my case, it was a defective RailSounds Legacy (RSL3) PCB card, and I didn't want to spend the money to replace it for this minor inconvenience.

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/t...51#64640221151557351

Do the sounds come back if you take the battery out?

CJack, no legacy or cab to do that, might have a friend I can try. Good theory.

GRJ, Yes, they do.

Greg, I will look at that thread, I hope it is not the board!

Oh sorry...conventional. Umm...I read the other thread and how reversing the battery can damage the board. Seems easy to do with a battery. Doesn't the board have reverse protection? A diode in series on the battery input?

It almost has to be the board or the cable has the polarity reversed.  Here's what the polarity should be on that battery connector.  The red + wire should go to the top terminal and the black - wire should go to the bottom terminal.

You were reading my mind. I still have it opened up. In he morning i will

1) check polarity.

2) swap boards, this is a 2012 and I have an rs 11 of the same vintage. 

3) if cjack s theory is right, I guess before I consider a new board (assuming 2 is successful), I can check who around me in the area runs legacy. Just in case the low volume setting is the stinker.

Since it works without the battery, I can't imagine the volume settings are the issue.  It seems something about connecting a battery is causing the issue.  The only two things I can think of is a bad board or the battery is reversed.

Update, the polarity is good. no issues there.  Here is the sequence- seems weird to me and also seems it has to be the board, especially since it works the first time with the battery (you would think this is not legacy volume adjustment related).

1) no battery, sounds work.

2) connect battery, sounds work for the first time until power is turned off. then no more sound.

3) disconnect battery, sounds work again.

4) reinstall battery, sound works for the first time, etc.  

It'd be interesting to know what the battery input circuit looks like...wonder if it has to do with voltage level differences from the two different sources to the board. Battery loads it down...bad diode?

Well, batteries work with 99.99% of those boards, so I'd assume that it's probably defective.

I was just moving ahead and wondering what was defective on the board that could cause this.

Hard to say, I haven't traced the battery circuit.

Thanks to all for the input on this, here is the rest of the story:

1) checked with lionel on availability of the railsounds lite audio board and they indicated they like to test possible bad boards before they ship a new one. Pulled railsounds lite audio board, and shipped to Lionel to have the board tested.  I think the fee if the board is good was $10-20.

2) About a week- 10 days  later I had an email and a call that the board was bad.  I confirmed to Lionel to send the new one for $79.

3) A few days later the new board arrived and it was installed tonight.  ALL IS WORKING GREAT!

Thanks to the forum and Lionel service for a super job on helping to solve the problem.