Trouble with ARC with LCS

Does anyone use the Action Recorder Controller, or has in the past?

JK Photo posted:

Hello from NJ ...

So today I hooked up the SER2 to the BASE-1L, and the ARC to the SER2 and installed a sensor track as a switch.  Thanks ... Joe

Hey Joe

Looking over what you have I don't see anything out of the ordinary but I haven't played with an ARC in many years.  I assume you assigned the 2nd ARC with it's own unique ID. 

I just wanted to high light that area of your original question to prevent confusion...  In this instance I believe what you are referring to is an isolated rail section of track to trigger one of the ARC's 4 inputs.  Many people will see Sensor Track and confuse it with the newer IR sensor track.

I'll see if I can get Rudy to take a look at your question.  Between him and Jon maybe they can figure out the issue. 

Hi Marty,

Thanks for reaching out.  I assigned  ARC #1 ACC#1 (should assign 1-8 as I understand it to ARC #1) and then I assigned ARC #2 ACC #9 (should assign ACC #9-16).  I do not have any other ACC defined on the system at the moment.  Am I doing this correctly?

You are correct about the track section ... I did not mean the IR Sensor Track, I meant isolating one of the outer rails and creating a switch - I think the term I should have used is track switch?

I have never tried wiring this directly to the Base-1L ... but I have ordered the RS232 3-wire cable needed for that and should receive it today to try to get it working in the standard fashion and then try to migrate to the LCS/SER2 system.  That was also Lionel tech service recommendation.

Do you remember, or know which of the following interconnection schemes is correct?

     (1) COM=>COM/ DAT=>DAT/ TXA=>TXA

     (2) COM=>COM/ DAT=>TXA/ TXA=>DAT

Thanks again ... Joe

I tried connecting to the BASE-1L over the weekend, and basically the results were the same ... I got the first one to work, but could not get the second operating.  I tried all three wiring schemes from post above.

I would almost imagine at this point that one of the units has a problem ... I will try to get the third and see what happens.

I found your post and wonder if you ever solved your problem?  From what I have researched you need a Lionel 6-14192 cable to connect from the Lionel SER2 (RS-232) to the Lionel ARC. With the following connections at the ARC: Red ==> DAT, Green ==> Comm, and Black ==> TXC.  If I read the manual correctly, to connect a second or more ARC’s in a daisy chain you connect as follows: TXA ==> TXA (Black wire), COMM ==> COMM (green wire) and DAT ==> DAT (Red Wire).

I have not solved the problem.    I did try your suggestion, along with a couple of others ....

Therefore, I have tried a few different wiring schemes (shown as ARC1=>ARC2)
(1) COM=>COM/ DAT=>DAT/ TXA=>TXA
(2) COM=>COM/ DAT=>TXA/ TXA=>DAT
(3) COM=>COM/ DAT=>DAT/ TXA=>TXC

UPDATE:   I never could get the ARC units to daisy chain.   However, I did get multiple units to all work when each was connected to its own SER2.  

UPDATE 2:  For those that might consider using these devices ... when there is more than one (ARC1 and ARC2 as an example), you can run a routine on one of them (ARC1) that calls a routine in the other (ARC2) which can see an input sensor that is on the second unit you would like to use in a program in the first unit.  These are very flexible units.