Ground Plane issues on my E6 Atlantic

You can check antenna, ensure board is seated, but I have found that some Command boards have sensitivity issues and don't work well depending on the layout.

If antenna and everything else looks right, you can try swapping in a R2LC from another engine and testing it to see if the problem follow the board, or stays with the engine.  G

My experience is that the smaller the steamer, the more it is tempermental to the signal issues. You need to improve your earth ground wiring around the area that engine is running. Placing your hand above the engine with it improving its response points to signal interference. My SMR ERR conversion of the Tahoe has a very small antenna in the engine's woodpile. I had to add an additional loop of earth ground wire above the path of that engine on my layout before it ran properly.

Have you made sure that both handrails are connected to the antenna wire and that there is no short between the handrails and the shell?

Once you have addressed the ground plane issue, individual engine signal problems are almost always related to a poorly designed, poorly placed or insufficiently large antenna.  I have used brass rod, both internally and externally, copper foil from a craft store, and, in one case, the pantograph on the roof of a diesel electric,(which works great). My most recent success was to use a piece of copper foil cut to about 6 inches by 2 1/2 inches which hardly worked at all until I cut away material to form a square coil shape creating an antenna with a surface area about 3/8 inch wide and 30 inches long.  Works great.  Creativity is the key!

Well, on a steamer, you're pretty limited.  Typically, they use the handrails as the antenna, since the shell is common to the frame.  Nothing you do inside the shell is going to help in this case.

I'm planning on isolating the whole shell of a MTH SP steamer as an antenna to install the ERR Cruise Commander, it's handrails are not insulated.

Bingo! I run mostly articulateds and big steam, this B&O is the smallest locomotive on the layout and everything else runs great. Strange thing is that before it went back to Lionel for service it ran fine on my layout. Maybe GGG is on to something. I think I will check before I start running copper everywhere. The sad part is I was so in tune with the ground plane issue back when RJ from NJHR's was experimenting with it, but when I started laying my sub roadbed I never even thought about installing the copper.

GGG and others, please be advised that the R2LC receiver board is not used in Legacy engines. Legacy engines use a R4LC receiver board that will process the 9 digit code that Legacy uses. To an extent the two boards are interchangeable but a R2LC will not operate a Legacy engine properly.

Al

I have a TMCC Camelback that drove me nuts for a while. I finally insulated the tender body from the frame using nylon screws and then it worked great.

Al,  Thanks, I do understand that.  Not sure the orig poster specified what type of engine.

I had a crew talk caboose giving me fits.  I increased the antenna, repostioned the antenna, removed lighting harnesses.  Finally I swapped a new LCRX in (same receiver components as the LCRU2 and to an extend the R2LC) and it worked great even though I forgot to hook up the antenna.  So I am a big believer in sensitivity issues with boards first.  Especially if other engines run fine on your lay out.

Also had a F-3 B unit with R2LC do the same thing.

G

I have seen copper foil tape at OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) as a snail barrier.  It was near the rat traps and poisons.