I spent considerable time on smoothing/leveling the layout table surface prior to positioning the TT. All effort for naught. Same problem I had with the earlier model: weight of engine causes the platter to sag which results in derailment. All of my motive power units are scale, but the problem occurred using the lightest engine I have, an 0-8-0 steam switcher. Since there seems to be a number of members here that have had success with the new model, don't be discouraged by my experience. I may not have the right touch to fix the problem.
Bill, what is under your turntable? My layout has 4" of that pink foam, two 2" thick sheets. It has supported all of my engines so far.
Tom
@Joe Rocco posted:So reading this it seems a lot of people have had time to test the 6999. Any issues that would prevent you from recommending it now that you have used it for a while?
Joe, I've been using mine since I created this post. I did have some issues early on but that's because my table was not completely flat. All I had to do was add a few shims here and there to correct that.
I used an old deck of cards as spacers to slide under the frame until it filled gaps. Then I used white glue to immobilize the cards to prevent accidental movement. The overall area is quite level.
@JC642 posted:I really never did have much of a problem with it's flimsy drive system. The biggest issue has always been something I've never been able to remedy, the table bed having intermittent or weak electrical contact with the engines causing erratic shutdowns, DCS engines being especially problematic or unable to receive signal. If this new replacement cured those problem and its a drop in utilizing all existing wiring, I may go for it...
joe
I too had conductivity issues with the old one and especially DCS systems. I was put down by a service tech at my LHS because he was told that my rollers weren’t oiled. They made me feel that I was unhinged for saying that wasn’t the problem.
It’s nice to finally be cured of my mental illness by having it announced that this is a known issue ( for everyone except my LHS).
Several questions for those with experience on the Atlas table:
1) Curved exit track? I had been thinking that the exits had to be straight track but this video shows several 027 curves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3uvOuUikrE&t=4s What is the experience on the curves that work for a 15-18" locomotive?
2) The atlas controller: the switch part is sensitive and is very easy to miss the pause or push the switch too far and go into reverse. Has anyone tried an alternative?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I bench tested the new model and found the indexing to be rather inaccurate. I have a plan to add some electronics, but until the turntable is on the layout, there's no point in talking about my plan. Anyway, my first observation was sloppy indexing.
Apparently it indexes with a Geneva mechanism ( go to 2:40 on the video link, nice animation) so it is all mechanical (did I read that in this thread?). Interested to see what you come up with. A minimum is a better 3 position switch! I assume the switch box contains a full wave rectifier?
Just to clarify, I didn't use the Atlas switch box, just a DC power supply with an on/off switch. One gets within a fraction of an inch to the feeder rail you want to stop at, cut power and it may or may not line up. Not what I think indexing should do. It either overshoots or undershoots. If you wait for it to stop moving and cut power, it will overshoot.
I get it and well said. You probably know this already but for anyone else interested, I just looked inside the box:
No wonder the switch is hard to use, not sure we can really call this a switch?
(BTW, the lionchief plus 2.0 is great!)
And it is a rectifier and a capacitor only as far as I can tell.
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Can a Lionel PH180 be used to power the Atlas Turntable?
As others have said here, Atlas 6999 uses a DC motor. So if you are using a AC power source a rectifier is required. I use the lionel TMCC System to run my trains and that includes an AMC motor controller. The controller allows you to select DC as a power output.
A couple observations if I may;
- leveling is fairly important especially for heavier engines and older engines that may not be working optimally. I used small pieces of cardboard to shim where needed. The card deck is a good suggestion
- be careful not to let any sawdust or foam pieces or other debris get underneath the table. I was having a bad time getting the turntable to turn all the way around. I was convinced it wasn’t level or that I had broken something. So I took it apart and found a substantial smount of crud had built up in the gear box. There’s grease on the gears to aid in smooth movement but it also creates a mess when particles of debris find their way inside.
- Warning. If you are going to take the top of the table off. There are three ball bearings in the center that st in small ‘cups’. When you remove the center screw and lift off the top the bearing fall out. Putting the top back on requires you to remove the bottom from thr table and reassemble it upside down. I learned this the hard way.
- you can take the gear box apart without having to take the top off. Carefully remove the screws from the motor assembly and the drive belt. The motor lifts out with one of the wires still attached to the frame but there is enough space to set it aside. The top of the gearbox then comes off by removing two screws. This is where I found my crud buildup. I cleaned, regreased, and reassembled the gears and motor ad now it purrs around like a kitten with or without engines.
I hope my observations help some of you enjoy your turntables.
Ron, good advice. I learned all that the hard way !
Tom
Would greasing the gears on the OLD Atlas turntable also help reduce the noise?
Or is the noise due to the motor and drive belt, not the gearbox?
FWIW, I have the older Atlas TT, and so far I find the indexing is very good. The issue with DCS is interesting, I'll be finding out about that soon as I'm working on wiring. 
Has anyone installed a mini commander II as demonstrated?
Since the TT control is bang-bang on/off in two directions, I'm just using two channels of an SC2 to control rotation. I'm not sure what the MC-II brings to the party. I'm also using sixteen more channels of the SC2 boxes to control each of the whisker tracks power.
Hi GRJ. Could you expand on how you use your sc-2’s to power your side tracks please.
Thanks. I am scratching my head.
Nothing to it Ron.
The track power comes into the common of all the SC-2 relays (note that I have separated Relay #1 from aux power to totally isolate it on all of my SC-2 boxes). I wire the whisker track center rail to the N/O output of each relay of the SC-2. I program the SC-2 for all accessory control. Then I just press ACC / # / AUX2 to toggle the respective whisker track power where # is the whisker track number from 01 through 16 in my case. The last two channels on the 3rd SC-2 are used to control TT rotation, number 17 & 18, you toggle them on and off with AUX2 as well. With the Atlas, you just let it run until the Geneva drive gets to the track and then toggle off the motor. I'll leave the TT bridge powered all the time so I don't need another power control, I don't really see any downside of doing that.
I built a layout for a guy once and think I remember using an AMC to power a Millhouse turntable so you could control it with a Cab. That worked out pretty good.
There's no real reason to have speed control on the Atlas TT motor, I just set it at a comfortable speed and turn it on or off in the desired direction. It's quite different from other turntables as it has the Geneva arrangement to index it.
That turntable was not indexed. Might have been right before that was available. That would have been handy, but maybe it made you feel like the guy at the controls, ramming speed!
The new Millhouse turntables are magnificent! They have programmable indexing so you can put the whisker tracks anywhere and exactly line up. Not cheap, but sure are nice! 
Harry Henning has one, great product.
With no indexing, I can certainly see why you'd want the AMC. AAMOF, I used the AMC to run his old TT before he got the Millhouse.
Geneva index I wish I knew this before. Mine must be defective as it overshoots. I assumed that this was as good as it gets for a low cost turntable.
GRJ
Two questions if I may. How did you go about isolating the relay. That would have been good to know when I was wiring my turnouts as you can’t use relay 1 with a lionel remote switch 12045/12046 for that reason.
question two - how do you control the speed on the whiskers and tt. Command engines? I should have mentioned that I mostly have conventional trains and use a tpc/bpc setup to control things and run remotely.
thanks for being helpful.
@Oman posted:Geneva index I wish I knew this before. Mine must be defective as it overshoots. I assumed that this was as good as it gets for a low cost turntable.
Mine is surprisingly good at alignment, I don't have any issue at any stop driving the locomotive off the whisker track an onto and off of the TT bridge.
@ronald weatherby posted:GRJ
Two questions if I may. How did you go about isolating the relay. That would have been good to know when I was wiring my turnouts as you can’t use relay 1 with a lionel remote switch 12045/12046 for that reason.
Here's a sloppy cut, I try to do them neater nowadays. This totally isolates the first relay and allows complete freedom in it's use.
@ronald weatherby posted:question two - how do you control the speed on the whiskers and tt. Command engines? I should have mentioned that I mostly have conventional trains and use a tpc/bpc setup to control things and run remotely.thanks for being helpful.
You guessed it, I'm 99.9% command, and I won't have any conventional stuff on the turntable or it's service loop.
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The track power comes into the common of all the SC-2 relays (note that I have separated Relay #1 from aux power to totally isolate it on all of my SC-2 boxes)
GRJ,
Please explain how isolating relay #1 effects the SC-2. Are you not using relay #1 after isolating it?
@Windy City posted:Please explain how isolating relay #1 effects the SC-2. Are you not using relay #1 after isolating it?
Relay #1 has it's common connected to the aux power ground. This was to allow the O22 switch to power the SC-2 directly and not require aux power. However, for use with accessories, this is a problem, so I cut that trace and provide the SC-2 with aux power and free up the relay for normal use. Once this trace is cut, all the relays are available and totally isolated from anything connection from AUX power. I most certainly am using all six relays.
I have a small ac/dc rice led connected to each whisker. That way I know which track has power at any time without having to look at the toggles. Some are incorporated into bumpers and some are set into a small hole on top of each stall in the roundhouse. I can easily see them from around my layout. I got mine from evans designs.
https://evandesigns.com/produc...eds-for-transformers
i hope I haven’t violated any rules by pasting this link.
Ron, I'm actually thinking about adding some LED's to allow me to see power status. It's a good idea, and I can't imagine what rules you're violating.
Idk. I remember something awhile ago about posting ebay stuff or something. Slipping memories perhaps.
@CAPPilot posted:I have an unopened one from many years ago that I plan to use. I wonder if I can get the new parts to upgrade it? Looks like another email to Atlas.
I spoke with Atlas a while back when this was introduced and asked your question. The answer was, no I can’t upgrade my older Atlas TT with the newer motor and cog belt . Not at all compatible, mountings. If you happen to ,get any different info, I’d like to upgrade. Thanks.
Anyone have an update on the new 6999 turntable after using it for a while?
I'm still using the older model, but so far it's worked fine, so I don't feel the need to upgrade just yet.
May I ask what are the engines you use on it?
The biggest engine on the TT currently is the Lionel Vision Line Hudson, it is the maximum size that will swing on a 24" TT. It's also a fairly heavy engine, but the TT doesn't seem to have any issue swinging it.
Thanks! The video is great!!!
The only thing I did for the TT is replace the belt on the drive motor. I have a variable DC power supply for the motor drive, and I adjusted it until I liked the speed of the TT rotation.
Rick, I'll toss a couple of the 1.0uf 50V caps in my bag to go to York.
