No Legacy Response

If it fires up with power, it has a signal reception issue.  Hold your hand over the boiler and then try powering it up.

Will do.

Am I acting as a conductive ground when I do that?

@BillYo414 posted:

Will do.

Am I acting as a conductive ground when I do that?

Yes, the 60-70% water of your body is conductive- and thus your hand and arm form the other side of the antenna, compared to the track and thus the body of the engine (since connected to the metal frame and wheels).

Nah. No dice @gunrunnerjohn @Vernon Barry. I put my hand on the boiler and still had no control. It does run in conventional but my whistle and bell buttons are switched for their functions.

Don't put your hand "on" the boiler; try it with your hand just hovering over the boiler.

Chuck

@BillYo414 posted:

Nah. No dice @gunrunnerjohn @Vernon Barry. I put my hand on the boiler and still had no control. It does run in conventional but my whistle and bell buttons are switched for their functions.

So the part that is worrying, OK, so conventional bell and whistle/horn are swapped- indicating reverse track power. Well, since Legacy or TMCC requires correct wiring, common U to outside rail and we have a clear indication of miswiring- I'd be checking that out.

Still no good. I'll have to take it apart here in a few days.

I appreciate the extra tip about the hand trick that I missed in my searches.

EDIT: @Vernon Barry that would be embarrassing. But let me run downstairs real quick anyway and double check.

Welp the wires were reversed. Which is embarrassing. They are corrected now. I also tried reprogramming the engine just for kicks but obviously that didn't work. I do remember this locomotive had a "beep beep" sound to it that I noticed before it went dead. I thought it was odd. It was very digital sounding and low in pitch. Is that any help. It was a repeating "beep beep".

Bill - which wires were reversed? Just on the siding the engine was on or ?

Thank you.

@Railrunnin the wires going to the track from the transformer. I didn't read. I just put red to center rail and black to outer rail and off I went haha

I finally got some time to take this apart and investigate. I took the shell off and removed the wire bracket that holds the bundle of wires in place in the top of the boiler. Then I look the Legacy board out. I put the engine back on the track with the tender and held the board so it wasn't touching anything. The wires to the motor were unplugged because it was easier to handle the board with them unplugged. The boiler laid on the table next to the tracks. I powered up and it responded to Legacy commands from the CAB2.

I put the Legacy board back on its mount and plugged the motor wires in. I held the boiler in the air with my hand. We are back to conventional control only. I powered down and set the boiler on it's mounts, powered up, came on conventional.

Alrighty. I thought maybe the antenna was shorting somewhere. I don't know which wire is the antenna but I know in ERR, the antenna often runs along the boiler. So I took the little wire bracket off. Powered up, conventional comes on.

I unplugged the wires going to the motor and powered up, I was in Legacy mode but I left the remote out of reach. I powered down, grabbed the remote, powered up, conventional.

Would I be right to wager I have a wire somewhere that is making a crappy connection? Seems like all the components work sometimes. That seems like a bad connection, not a bad component.

The handrails are the TMCC antenna.

@gunrunnerjohn not 5 minutes after posting, I removed the whistle smoke unit and a wire came with it that should have been soldered to the handrail. That was the issue. It's working well now other than leaking a lot of smoke around the whistle. I'm thinking I didn't seat the smoke unit right but that's no big deal.

Thanks everyone for the help!