Cruise Commander M Questions - K-Line Pacific

Did serial data get connected correctly, did you wire it correctly?  Was the original board a DCDR conventional speed control, or a K-Line Cruise board?  G

GGG - It came original with the K-Line Cruise board.  I don't think that the serial data is connected correctly.  The instruction manual for the Cruise Commander M on the 3rd Rail website has a K-Line Allegheny as the example.  The original wiring that was in the locomotive did not have a serial data wire nut (the were only 2 wire nuts - the hot line wire nut and the wire nut for the antenna).  There was a wire that went to from the R2LC board and it had a connector on the former old cruise board that went to the tether.  I assumed it was the serial data line. 

The 5 pin wire harness that is on my locomotive has 4 wires coming from it and in the example, it has what looks to be 3 wires. 

The example shows that the pin closest to the edge of the R2LC board is the serial data wire.  On my locomotive, it was the 2nd wire from the edge that went from the R2LC board to the original K-line Cruise board.  The other 3 wires coming from my R2LC all go to tether.   

What am I missing here?  It also looks like in the example that there is only one wire being used in the J4 connector on the Cruise Commander M board in pin 1.  

GGG your help is much appreciated!

I like the engine as well and if all else fails, it will take a DCS system as I have in mine.  The only issue with converting to DCS is the placement of the smoke unit under the stack.  It was quite tight.

Correct you tap into serial data and send to pin 1 of the J4 jumper.  Remove any other wires in that K-Line jumper unless you know they do not go to chassis ground.  There is more advanced wiring that can be done, but you have to know how it works and what it goes too.  G

I connected the wire from the cruise commander to pin 24 and it works!   It’ll creep again and I’m very pleased!  Thanks for your help GGG!   I have a K-Line E8 TMCC set that I’d love to put a cruise commander in.  I’ve asked in the past about it and received mixed answers.  Do you think it could handle the load of 4 motors?

Thanks Again!

4 motors in one frame, or an AA?  I have not done it, but other have said they have.  I guess the question is how the Back EMF is sensed with 4 motors.  4 canned motors are not going to exceed the current of the CC.  Upgrade the Lead A and run it.  Add the other motors via a harness and test a AA combo.  See how it performs.  If your happy, add the rest of the wires to get coupler and RL on the Trail A.  G

As G has said others have done it. In normal running you should not exceed the 6 amp rating of the Cruise M but if the engine stalls it will. Fuse it to be safe. I have used a Cruise M in each K-Line E8 driven by a single R2LC and it works great but it required a new tether to handle the extra wires.

Pete

I've had mixed results with trying to run four motors with the cruise boards.  Truthfully, the CC-M was less forgiving, I had better luck with the full Cruise Commander.  My problem was that the cruise performance really dropped off with the four motors, it didn't maintain constant speeds nearly as well as with two motors. 

Jon Z. had stated that at low speeds the Cruise boards sense commutator transitions, perhaps with four motors it's harder to pick those up and the low speed cruise suffers.

Well, I added a Cruise M to the E8s - much quicker install this time with no hiccups, unlike the Pacific.  So far they are running like champs.  They'll run slow now and maintain that speed.  They aren't erratic anymore with their speed like before having to constantly keep my hand on the throttle.  I am very pleased!  Thanks for all the help and suggestions!