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I just made a temporary track and just got my legacy and power master to work thanks to some old ogrr posts. Doesn’t happen all the time but I get some interference now and again. I thought I read somewhere that the power master and brick or legacy base not sure which should not be close to each other. Was wondering if that can cause interference or maybe track and or wiring might cause that.

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Doesn’t happen all the time but I get some interference now and again. I thought I read somewhere that the power master and brick or legacy base not sure which should not be close to each other. Was wondering if that can cause interference or maybe track and or wiring might cause that.

Scotty,

Probably not.  Is the headlight flickering?  If it was that would indicate a poor radio signal or interference.

Suggestion: Turn your phone 90 degrees (landscape instead of portrait) and get close to the engine so we can see a little better.  (When viewed from any angle except head on trains are short and wide; people, flag poles and rockets are tall and skinny.)

Mike

Last edited by Mellow Hudson Mike

The term interference is a bit broad.  What does your interference sound or act like?  Is it movement related, or sound related?  If sound, a buzz, click, whirring sounds, sound cut off,  that should not be there?  Some times the 'brick' location or other device with a AC to DC power supply in it can induce a signal into the thing being powered.  My AT&T  modem too close to my computer speaker that has the amp and power supply in it, will make some weird sounds in the speaker, and just separating them a bit and it goes away. Many power supplies today are the switching style.  An oscillator running in the 100Khz and up range is making AC that is converted back to DC as it can be filtered very effectively to make it pure ripple-less DC, but depending on design, can make a heck of an electronic racket.  One of the key parameters of any switching supply is how well it does not interfere with other electronics including radios and televisions.  Turn on your AM radio and see if the supply is putting out a racket on the broadcast band.  I have one that came in my camping trailer that is so noisy, the AM radio that also came with the trailer is totally blanked out by it.  You would have thought they might have checked that.  CFL, LED, and halogen lamp systems that have an external supply can also be radio noisy, and in the radio world, the interference can travel a long way outside of a home or apartment.   Something I learned about solid state 'energy saving' ballasts for florescent lights is that they run in the 25Khz range and the lights also flicker at that rate.  The flickering  will interfere with some IR control devices, blocking whatever is being controlled from receiving the IR signal from the remote.  They also cause wicked headaches in some people.  Usually a switching supply and an analog supply can be determined by their weight, the switcher being small, as in a cell phone charger that can put out 5V at 1amp, where as an analog power supply, the 5V,  1 amp capable transformer made out of iron will be much larger and heavier.  Our nigh sky views are being restricted by light pollution, while in the radio world, noise pollution from billions of poorly designed switching supplies and myriad other things like charge controllers in solar arrays, are making the radio world just as restricted.  As a side note, if your digital TV pixelates, freeze frames, or just drops out completely, you could be interfered with from a CB or Amateur Operator and you don't know he is out there.  In the old days, you could hear voices sometimes, or the screen would go out of sync or flicker with voice and you knew what it was, today, most folks have no clue.

Last edited by CALNNC

Is the black box with 5 lights next to the curve a wireless router?  Some "gaming" routers with channel bonding have signal strength that jam the Cab2<->Base signals. You would observe the Cab2's red led come on even though its only a few feet away from the base.  Perhaps the circuit board in the engine is picking up some of that RF energy and outputting noise.  Move the router a few feet away from the train gear.

lol calnnc, I remember those days with the voices from cb radios thank you , like Tracker John said yes the wireless router is right next to the track and near the cab2 base. I will see if I can move that somewhere else, but I thought I had heard that the power master and brick should not be too close or one of those. its tough to explain the noise the lights stay on the motor rev and bell whistle will all cut out and you get this crackling noise.

There are a few things to check.  #1 is the volume control, a spray of contact cleaner and running it back and forth a few times might fix it.  Next, I'd check the speaker and wiring, though that particular sound behavior isn't typical for a speaker failure.  Finally, if this is a TMCC or early Legacy with the modular audio board, reseating the PLCC chips may be called for.  Also, reseating the audio boards and connectors is always a good thing to try.

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