Does anyone actually charge their Legacy remote in the dock? I had a 990 set about 5 years ago, but i kept having a problem with the charging circuit. I just purchased a new set and was wondering if I should just buy a few sets of batteries with a charger and turn off the charging cycle on the 990 base or should I trust the charging circuits now?
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They say they have. I believe it was implemented several years back after the initial complaints. I think, and not 100% sure, that it took a few production cycles.
I sent all of mine back in and got the charging circuit fixed, they all charge properly now.
Mine has always worked OK. I do keep rechargeable's on hand for the Cab 1L's that get more use than the Cab 2.
Bruce
Mine is from the batch that was delayed for quite sometime a couple of years ago. The charging circuit works just fine.
IIRC, I finally got it in the fall of 2014 or somewhere around there.
Thanks guys
Do you leave the power on to the base all the time or do you shut it down when your layout is not running. Currently I have mine where it shuts down when I kill the power to the layout.
I shut it down unless I'm charging a remote.
Mine also shuts down with the layout. In fact, everything I have that's train related shuts down with the layout.
I have first-generation legacy set, mine stays powered all the time unless a storm is coming through or I am traveling on business.
I sent mine back for the fix, but it never worked when it came back. Probably should send it back again.
I have 2, one of the original runs and one of the batch that was delayed and had to be fixed in the US. Both had to go back for charging circuit repair and both work and charge now.
Regardless, Lionel will fix it without charge. So you could by a new one or used one and be fine if you don't mind sending it in for repair if the charging does not work.
I've had my Legacy set since 2015. It has been sent back four times so far; twice for on/off problems, the keyboard was showing up in the display one time and the last time was for the charging lights blinking together. They replaced a Bourns fuse SMT 1.50 AMP 63 volt component. I have had it back five days now and the charging lights are blinking together again. I guess I'll just send it back again. To Lionel's credit, they have always fixed it for free and they do provide an RA label so the shipping is free too. Thank goodness I still have my good old reliable TMCC Command Base and CAB1.
Other that replacing a fuse, does anyone know what the original issue was that so many of them failed. It seems kind of weird that every battery kiosk has a charger available that just works with no issues for as long as you own it.
Some sort of design issue. I sent my #990 and #993 in, both of them were fixed and work fine.
I sent all in as well, but the 993 is blinking both red again. Different battery sets, etc. But it does charge adequately until that happens.
The blinking red sometimes indicates the batteries got too hot.
Attachments
Sent mine in because the keyboard stopped functioning now the charging circuit doesn’t function. Back it goes.
Mike
sent my set in, charging system overheating, came back still overheating! I quit using the charging circuit. I now just use energizers or Duracells, I run my trains a lot, and I can get a month out of a set of batteries......the little bit I spend on batteries each month is a price Im willing to pay not to have deal with Lionel service....but that's for another thread I reckon!
Mine works out of the box but I don't like how hot the the remote gets.
I'll go on the record as saying having a charger was a good idea but seems to have been a bigger pain than it was worth. I'm not sure if it was implimented today if it could have been more robust. I don't leave anything plugged in so for me it's a moot point anyways. I use alkaline batteries and turn the charginging circuit off. Kudos to Lionel though for keeping the warranty period open on these for repair.