Sensor Track Problem

You are running on 50Hz AC, right Nick? Which version of the Legacy software in your cab and base? Have you tried more than one cable?

Hi Rudy, 

           No I run 60Hz AC (12V power supply and pure sine inverter) 

I am running software 1.54

I tried a couple of cables and also running the sensor track as the first LCS device from the LCS power supply.

Regards

Nick

>(12V power supply and pure sine inverter) 

???

Do you mean 120VAC, or do you mean your track power is 12VAC @ 60 HZ? If the latter, what is the AC frequency on the electrical mains that the command base and LCS power supply is plugged into?

Also, have you tried more than one cable?

230V AC 50Hz(UK mains) to 12V DC power supply powering a 12V DC to 120V AC 60Hz pure sine wave inverter.

I got into the hobby in 2005, I am afraid some of your predecessors were not as up to speed as Mike R and jon Z. etc. There were a number of 50Hz problems with Lionel equipment. My whole layout is powered by U.S. specification 120V AC 60Hz electric as I did not want any nasty surprises (18V AC 60Hz on the track). Certain older TMCC engines acted up on 50Hz.

I tried another LCS cable but the sensor track acts the same. 

Regards

Nick

OK, thanks for the clarification. 

Have you tested any other LCS devices and if so, which ones? Are they working as expected?

I have the wifi adaptor and a Ser2. I literally just hooked all the LCS bits up today for the first time.

The Wifi adaptor appears to be working in access point mode.I joined my iPhone to it. But I have not tested it any further. Need to join my iPad so I can test with LCS app. 

Ser2 with DCS connected but again not had chance to test tonight. 

I will test tommorow and let you know.

Thanks for the help Rudy

Nick

I just went through weeks of back and forth with Lionel on this same issue.  I have 10 sensor tracks on my layout, wifi module, 4 ASC2, 2 BPC2.  I had sensor tracks that did the same as yours.  Also ones that would do the wrong command that was programmed, or do the command in both directions when it should not.  We tried new legacy Base, new cables (changed from 20 ft to 10 ft), eliminating the ASC2 and BPC2 from the mix, etc.

The final cause : multiple defective sensor tracks.  Out of 10 I had on the layout 3 were defective.  The problem was that when I got to one and I thought it was bad, I would switch it with another and that one was bad too(dumb luck) so I assumed it was not the tracks since I did not think 2 could be defective.  I had to tear up my whole layout to start from the first track and hook up one after another to narrow it down.  I was not a happy camper.   When I got to one that did not work, I would take the one right before it that I knew did work and try it in that spot and it would work, so I knew it was the track (and not a cable or something).  That's a 30% failure rate in my case, not very good.  The problem is you don't know if its the track you are putting in, the cable between the tracks or even the output port of the track prior to the one you are putting in.  So for each one you have to go step by step looking at 3 things.  I also found out from service I was almost at the max modules that the power supply could handle and they thought it might be a low power situation, but they have no solution, as there is no bigger power supply or a way to hook up 2 power supplies. Luckily that was not the issue.

I am using the LCS system to do everything by command, but it seems it was not designed for layouts with a lot of modules.  I may need to add another ASC2 so hopefully I won't run short of power.

Apparently the way it works is when the engine passes over the sensor, the track sends the command through the PDI chain back to the Legacy base which then sends out the command to the engine.  It would be just like it was coming from the CAB2.  A bad track and the commands get all messed up.  So if you can do things like blow the whistle from the CAB2 on the same section of track then its not a Base to Engine issue, its a sensor track issue.

I got almost all mine from the last batch that came in, so not sure if there is some issue with the last run of sensor tracks.

My advice is do not permanently put anything down on your layout until you test all commands one by one on each track.  Also, apparently there is some hardware issue (they did not share the details) and in some cases you may need a filter (from Lionel) if you have an issue where Record Ready mode drops out before the recording starts.  Lionel has a fix, which is a filter you plug into the last module of the chain.

Every LCS module I installed up until the sensor tracks worked perfect.  I just spent a month trying to figure out what was happening.  Luckily I have a LHS to go exchange tracks but if you are a mail order person, its going to be a bigger pain. 

I now have all 10 working. 

Interesting...very. Thanks for sharing your experience.

on the power supply, I would guess one could replace the plug in 12 vdc 1 amp wall wart with a bigger one.

The terminating end of daisy chain is probably a resistor across the data pair of wires.

Hi Sean, Thanks very much for the info. Just my luck to get a duff unit. As you say returns will no doubt be interesting here from the UK.

Rudy, Did some testing this afternoon. SER2 works perfectly. Wifi also works great, as a aside this is very cool. I swapped the LCS cables around and they all worked fine with the Wifi and SER2. Still no joy on the sensor track. 

Nick

Nick, I understand you are in touch with Lionel customer service, which is what I was about to suggest. Our test layout has a dozen SensorTracks on it, we haven't seen these issues--but something is not right. We are looking into this here in Engineering.

Thanks Rudy,

yes I am in touch with Service. I have just got a procedure to try from them. I will give it a go tommorow. Been at work since 05:30 today and it's getting late here in the UK.

Nick

I did wonder about the cables in regard to the data. I wondered how many 20 foot cables one could run in series. Not my issue yet, but I do have two 10 and two 20 foot ones in series. Once I figure where I want these sensor tracks, I could use some shorter more direct runs if necessary.

Rudy couple of questions/comments.

1.  How do we know when they exceed the power supply, what are the symptoms?  I plan to add some more ASC2 Modules but hesitant because everything's working now and don't want issues again.

2.  The noise comment I got directly from the High Rail website about the filter fix, so that's what they said was the reason I needed the filter.

Thanks

Sean, the current draw for each LCS module is printed in the Specifications section of that product's Owner's Manual, the LCS power supply is conservatively rated at 1 amp.

I'm in touch with the High Rail developer pretty regularly, we'll see if we can be a little clearer in our communication. I just don't want folks to get the impression that High Rail is causing a problem--as Marty says, the noise issue some users have experienced happens regardless of wether High Rail is running or not.

Thanks MartyE and Railsounds for clarifying that the "noise" issue is a LCS hardware issue and not a High Rail software issue. The post on the High Rail site - mentioned by Sean -has been updated. Hopefully it helps. 

I originally had all 20ft cables between the sensor tracks.  I used 20 ft's because at the time I bought everything I was not sure where the tracks would be and how far I would need to run the cables.  So I figured I was just use the longest ones and coil up the extra cable under the layout.  One of the troubleshooting steps I did was replace all the 20's with 10 ft's.  That did not make a difference so I'm thinking length is not a factor.

Thanks for getting that clarified.  The website did not mention the hardware was the cause of the noise, but I see they have updated it now.  Regardless, the filter resolved my issue with the record ready mode drop.