Legacy to DCS am I missing a cable??

Alan,

The cable that came with Legacy is not used to connect it to the TIU. You need MTH #50-1032 TIU to TMCC/Legacy cable.

This and a whole lot more is all in "The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", now available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book from MTH's web store site! Click on the link below to go to MTH's web page for the book!

Barry

thanks I have your first edition. And I do have that MTH cable already connected to the TIU. This cable was used to connect the  TIU to the Command Base. So now I connect this MTH cable to the Legacy cable "end" that would be used to connect to a computer. The TIU acts as a computer to control Legacy.

Correct?

Yes

Alan,

So now I connect this MTH cable to the Legacy cable "end" that would be used to connect to a computer. The TIU acts as a computer to control Legacy.

That's correct.

I don't mean to hijack this topic, but I have a related question. I have the MTH cable that connects the Legacy base to the DCS TIU, but I would also like to add the Lionel ASC. Can this be done, and what cable would be needed? The "Y" cable that came with the Legacy??

Thanks, Ray

Ray,

That's correct.

Thanks, Barry, I have your O Gauge Book, but couldn't find it in there 

Ray

Ray,

Look a at Figure 40 on page 124 of The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition. It's in the first edition, as well.

This and a whole lot more is all in "The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", now available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book from MTH's web store site! Click on the link below to go to MTH's web page for the book!

Barry, I believe he is asking how to connect both the TIU cable and an ASC to the Legacy Base serial port leg in your drawing.

One method is to build a 9-pin male-to-female connector stack and add breakout wires to pins 2 & 5 to run to the accessory controllers.

Another method is the MANCO Booster, which provides 2 9-pin outputs from the Base serial leg, one boosted for driving ZStuff data wire drivers and TPCs, the other straight through to the base for the TIU or a computer.

Dale,

I believe that all he should have to do is replace the TMCC command base with the ASC correct?

The "Y" leg that normally goes to the TMCC Base does not use pins 2 and 3 of the Legacy Base.  It apparently has a separate communications channel on pins 4 and 1 of the Legacy Base 9-pin connector.  The Legacy Base has two dual serial I/O chips for a total of 4 I/O channels.  (Too bad nobody wrote a book about TMCC/Legacy....)

I hear opportunity knocking for you Dale.

Dale,

Too bad nobody wrote a book about TMCC/Legacy...

My understanding is that there are any number of books written on the subject of TMCC. However, every time the subject of a Legacy book is broached on the forum, the same naysayers claim that "we don't need no stinkin' Legacy book" because Legacy is so simple and easy to use.

Speaking as a reasonably intelligent individual (here come the wisecracks), I'd personally like to see a Legacy book somewhat along the lines of what I wrote for DCS. I'd buy it in a NY minute!  

Just my 2 cents...

Barry, why do you leave those doors so wide open?

John you should write one. It would be your Legacy.

I already have a Legacy.

I am not an electrical engineer. And one should not need to be one to run "toy" trains. Before command control, all I needed to know was how to hook up what I call "bell-wire", meaning that if one wire goes to a transformer from a bell and a second wire goes back to the bell it rings!.  

However, as much as Lionel and MTH wanted to make their command systems hook up as easy as LEGOS, it just doesn't quite work that way.

Each reasonably complex multi-switch layout that is more complex than a single loop of track acts differently even when a switch is thrown. Add to that different command systems, then a whole lot more thought must go into a command layout than a "bell-wire" one when figuring just how hard it is to figure out how to find 25% of the track to evenly distribute the power from four bricks.

Ok someone write that Legacy/TMCC book.

My O-gauge conventional layout has more complex wiring than my STG layout that is wired with star wiring following Barrys' book to the letter.

A conventional layout with stop blocks and signals and proper distribution of power to keep the trains running at the same speed is challenging.

A Command Control layout that has signals but no stop blocks. Plus, the fact voltage can vary from 12 to 22 volts on the loop and the track can be dirty: the trains will still run perfectly.