Signal Differences between Legacy and Legacy Lite?

Pete,

The Cab1L should have the same signal strength. It's missing legacy features of the Cab2. It should be good for TMCC engines.

Some early users encountered power supply problems that created signal\control issues. I would call Lionel CS. They may send you a new power supply.

Also the obvious...make sure you have a good earth grounded receptacle that it's plugged into. I have had good success connecting the common (signal wire) wire from the base to the common on the transformer.

I had the same problem with the Cab 1L and called Lionel. I received a new wall wart from them and this cleared up the problem.

Ray

If you ever suspect the power ground connection, running a wire from pin 5 of the serial connector on the base to the earth ground will confirm or refute any grounding issues.

I appreciate the tips guys. Is there some way to identify if the Power Supply is an original type or the replacement?

Pete

The P/S that came with my BASE1-L looks like this.

Thanks John, That should help eliminating one of the variables.

Pete

I thought I would post a followup on this issue. After talking with Mike Reagan and Phil Hull at York, they said the fix for a poor signal on some of the early Base 1Ls is to install a capacitor inside the unit. They will do this for no charge if you send it in.

What makes this problem somewhat difficult to diagnose is apparently Legacy engines work just fine. I also found some TMCC engines also work OK, in particular diesels. I am guessing this is because of the plastic body not shielding the antenna. TMCC steam engines are the most vulnerable.

Many will conclude its a problem with their engine rather than the Base 1L but after adding the cap all engines will run equally well.

Pete

One wonders where the cap goes.  It would be nice to know, save a trip back to Lionel for a simple mod.

Shoot me an email John.

Pete

I purchased a 1L system for our modular layout. When I received it, I hooked it up to my home layout and it didn't work with any TMCC engines and only one Legacy engine. Sent it back to Lionel and they installed the capacitor. When I got it back I again checked it out on my home layout and it ran everything perfectly. Used it at one of our modular layout displays and it worked perfectly again. However, at another display location of the modular layout, the 1L didn't work. All engines we tried had flickering headlights and responded erratically to commands from the Cab1L. We hooked up a Cab1 system, there was no headlight flickering and all the engines responded to commands correctly. I took the Cab1L system back home, hooked it up to my layout and it worked perfectly again. Since the Cab1 worked at the second venue and the 1L didn't I pretty much felt the 1L's track signal strength was weaker than the 1's was.

I emailed Lionel and the response I got was there must be an environmental factor affecting the 1L at the second location and to try changing the channel that it was operating on. From what I've read and seen, if an engine has a flickering headlight then it is due to a poor track signal. Changing the channel only affects communication between the Cab1L and the 1L Base. When I attempted to explain again that the problem involved the signal leaving the 1L base, Lionel continued to say the issue was probably with the channel setting. They never would explain why the Cab1 system would work and the Cab1L wouldn't. I would think if the Cab1 worked then the grounding at the second location wouldn't be an issue.

Since we don't go back to this venue until December, there's nothing I can try until then. The tip on running a wire from pin 5 to earth ground is something I'm going to try (along with changing channels). If you have any ideas of anything else to attempt or an explanation as to what is happening please post them.

Ken

Gentlemen,

   The simple fix is to upgrade to Legacy, in my case I never owned a TMCC Cab1 it even took me a while to purchase the Legacy, however I can not see modifying the TMCC unless you are never planning to purchase Legacy at all, and to me, now that I won it, that would be a crime.

PCRR/Dave

Ken,

The Base1-L has the identical track signal drive circuit as the Legacy 990 base.  There should be no difference in their signal strength.

Jon,

 Thanks for the reply. However, let me rephrase my question based on your response - Does the old Cab 1 base put out a stronger track signal than the Cab 1L or Cab 2 bases?

Ken

Just had a thought while reading this thread. 

With the recent 50Hz software update for Legacy.

 Does the Base and Cab 1L have the same software issues? 

Nick

I am not sure if the Base1 signal is different than the Base1-L or 990 Legacy Base.  My gut feel is not really.  We expect between 5 to 6 VPP on the "U" terminal for all of the products to pass QA. 

Jon, is that measurement with some specific load on the signal?  I'm assuming the larger the layout, the more capacitive load it would present to the signal generator.

I had the TMCC engines issue and sent the Base 1L back to Lionel (can't recall the change) and it now works with TMCC engines.  Legacy ones worked fine both before and after.

Jim