It's rotten luck that about the time I was planning to buy a Cruise Commander from ERR the recent "going out of business" came out. Finding one now is difficult. Does anyone have one they'd be willing to part with?
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If you have one to sell, you're in great shape. Trying to buy one... not so lucky. 
There are some backdoor methods of doing a TMCC upgrade, but it won't be as seamless as doing them with the ERR products.
I have several, none I’m willing to part with
Nine or none?
Sorry, spell check made that very misleading
Try these two places...
Www.westerndepot.com I believe has 2 cruise commander m in stock
Www.wabashjunction. I believe has cruise commanders in stock.
These are the only places I found that still list them.
Joe Fermani posted:Try these two places...
Www.westerndepot.com I believe has 2 cruise commander m in stock
Www.wabashjunction. I believe has cruise commanders in stock.
These are the only places I found that still list them.
Neither of those has any left.
Worst timing ever...
John2184 posted:Does anyone have one they'd be willing to part with?
Matt Makens posted:I have several, none I’m willing to part with
I think that has problems qualifying as a helpful response. 
What are you looking to upgrade. Will a cruise commander lite work?
Has anyone had any response from ERR/Lionel about items purchased (4-23) before the sales part of the site went offline? Have my receipt, but no communications yet. I understand there was six months of orders placed in less than a weeks time frame.
I talked to Ken yesterday an ERR. He is swamped with orders. He told me that he still has about 100 orders left to fill. Because of the onslaught of orders, PayPal shut down the account. Ken uses PayPal to pay for the postage to ship orders. Lionel is working with PayPal to get it corrected. We just need to give him time to get it all done.
I called because I wanted him to update the code in a Cruise Commander M board. I decided to hold off sending it in because he said it would be awhile before he could get to it.
shawn posted:What are you looking to upgrade. Will a cruise commander lite work?
I want to upgrade the locomotive from the Lionel Santa Fe El Capitan set. #6-24568. I'm not sure if the cruise commander lite will work for that. Can anyone chime in?
shawn posted:What are you looking to upgrade. Will a cruise commander lite work?
I got a couple of Cruise Commander M sets, they were ordered 4/21/18. I haven't heard anything about the several orders placed on 4/23/18 yet.
I ordered a couple M from ERR but it was cancelled after a few days...out of stock. I did find them at Western Depot. I ordered one at first since I had ordered 2 at ERR. But then ERR cancelled. So I ordered the last one they had at Western Depot. Cost me an extra shipping because ERR took awhile to cancel. I like the live inventory information at Western Depot.
John2184 posted:I want to upgrade the locomotive from the Lionel Santa Fe El Capitan set. #6-24568. I'm not sure if the cruise commander lite will work for that. Can anyone chime in?
The CC-Lite is quite a bit too "lite" for this application. Unless you're going to be pulling only three-four cars and not attacking any grades, I'd say no.
gunrunnerjohn posted:If you have one to sell, you're in great shape. Trying to buy one... not so lucky.
There are some backdoor methods of doing a TMCC upgrade, but it won't be as seamless as doing them with the ERR products.
I'm not afraid of a challenge. Can you point me to where I can find those backdoor methods?
You can still buy the back-EMF module from Lionel, at least currently. The TMCC R4LC is readily available, add a motherboard and sound boards and go to town.
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Buy a mother board, R2LC, RS power Supply, RS Board and a bunch of harnesses to connect it all. Real problem is cruise. Instead of cheap DCDR, you need an Ody board, and speed sensor. Maybe a motor. So for about $300 in parts you can get what you need. This is really futile as compared to the Cruise CDR.
I did some, mimicking an Atlas or K-Line OEM diesel install. Early ones that just used Lionel parts. G
GGG posted:Buy a mother board, R2LC, RS power Supply, RS Board and a bunch of harnesses to connect it all. Real problem is cruise. Instead of cheap DCDR, you need an Ody board, and speed sensor. Maybe a motor. So for about $300 in parts you can get what you need. This is really futile as compared to the Cruise CDR.
I did some, mimicking an Atlas or K-Line OEM diesel install. Early ones that just used Lionel parts. G
Along those same lines you can also build an engine using all Legacy Parts. PITA making all those harnesses but it has been done by myself, Mike R, and couple of other friends. BTDT, I will use ERR in the future.
Pete
You're right Pete, after doing a couple of upgrades crimping connectors for all the connections, I'd much rather do it with the ERR stuff. 
Norton posted:GGG posted:Buy a mother board, R2LC, RS power Supply, RS Board and a bunch of harnesses to connect it all. Real problem is cruise. Instead of cheap DCDR, you need an Ody board, and speed sensor. Maybe a motor. So for about $300 in parts you can get what you need. This is really futile as compared to the Cruise CDR.
I did some, mimicking an Atlas or K-Line OEM diesel install. Early ones that just used Lionel parts. G
Along those same lines you can also build an engine using all Legacy Parts. PITA making all those harnesses but it has been done by myself, Mike R, and couple of other friends. BTDT, I will use ERR in the future.
Pete
I’ve had some luck doing a search on Lionel’s parts for “harness” and similar terms. It seems like they list hundreds of harnesses separately...not with the engine or tender breakdown. You have to kind of guess on connector size, etc. but noting the ridges and so forth can be revealing as to what you are looking at.
cjack posted:Norton posted:GGG posted:Buy a mother board, R2LC, RS power Supply, RS Board and a bunch of harnesses to connect it all. Real problem is cruise. Instead of cheap DCDR, you need an Ody board, and speed sensor. Maybe a motor. So for about $300 in parts you can get what you need. This is really futile as compared to the Cruise CDR.
I did some, mimicking an Atlas or K-Line OEM diesel install. Early ones that just used Lionel parts. G
Along those same lines you can also build an engine using all Legacy Parts. PITA making all those harnesses but it has been done by myself, Mike R, and couple of other friends. BTDT, I will use ERR in the future.
Pete
I’ve had some luck doing a search on Lionel’s parts for “harness” and similar terms. It seems like they list hundreds of harnesses separately...not with the engine or tender breakdown. You have to kind of guess on connector size, etc. but noting the ridges and so forth can be revealing as to what you are looking at.
I think it boils down to about 4 types, not including the Molex Micro Fits used in the older (including modular Legacy) motor drivers. The 2.5mm, 2 mm, 1.5 mm in line connectors are all JSTs. I am not certain of the 1.25mm connector but have used a modified Hirose connector that fits after removing a few of the keys. For the two places I have found them, they will work. As I said I have no plans to do a Legacy install again. Buying harnesses would add up and like you said the same boards may use a different harness if they have to travel different distances.
It fills the time for those long winter nights but someone who does upgrades would have to charge more than a new Legacy engine costs or work for 25 cents an hour.
Pete
The connectors are readily available, and a crimp tool is not prohibitively expensive that works with all the popular TMCC and Legacy connectors. Trying to find the appropriate harness for each job would probably be more work than just making them.
... Remember when Lionel announced they where not going to make any more TMCC remotes?!
gunrunnerjohn posted:You can still buy the back-EMF module from Lionel, at least currently. The TMCC R4LC is readily available, add a motherboard and sound boards and go to town.
is this the same as an EER Cruise Commander M??
Did a search. Found this dealer: Royztrains, 231-949-8682.
WaynePA posted:Did a search. Found this dealer: Royztrains, 231-949-8682.
Yep, I tapped Roy out with my repairs. He is waiting for his parts too...
Jim Harrington posted:gunrunnerjohn posted:You can still buy the back-EMF module from Lionel, at least currently. The TMCC R4LC is readily available, add a motherboard and sound boards and go to town.
is this the same as an EER Cruise Commander M??
Yes kinda, but the last one I got was defective and guess who did not honor a warranty replacement. There are also some Serial data compatibility issues to resolve.
In reality save your self a head ache and your valuable time and go buy a new or used engine with the features you want. G
I just got two of these, and I promptly put them on my test stand and beat them up for a few minutes to make sure they worked. I also got a couple more CC-M packages from ERR, so I have a few of these for upgrades before the well runs dry.
gunrunnerjohn posted:I just got two of these, and I promptly put them on my test stand and beat them up for a few minutes to make sure they worked. I also got a couple more CC-M packages from ERR, so I have a few of these for upgrades before the well runs dry.
What is the difference between the "Cruise Cmdr-M Kit For All Steam" and the "Cruise-M Odyssey (Diesel)" ? The chips are labeled CR-6.0A and CRM 6.0 respectively.
Well, the CC-M for All Steam is the one that will work properly with the wireless drawbar also drawing current from the serial data. They were actually merging them to have one module compatible with all environments, apparently that's what I got. in this latest shipment. I remember having the discussion of the differences some time back with Ken, and he mentioned that they were planning a move like this. Mine are simply labeled CRM 6.0, there is no a or b.
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As I recall the evolution of the Cruise Ms went from a steam kit and diesel kit. The difference was the diesel kit included a 4 pin Molex Micro Fit if you had a 6 pin connector on your old motor driver. If you had a wireless tether you had to request an add on of some sort (never needed one). Then all the steam kits had the ability to drive wireless tethers. Finally it appears they made one kit for all applications. Good move.
Pete
I never used their wire harness that you were supposed to splice into the existing Odyssey DCDS wiring. I preferred to pull the pins out of the old 6-pin connector and slide them into the proper 4-pin connector, makes for a much neater installation.
They made the one kit for all applications just in time to shut down the company and not make anything! 
John, what are you using for an extractor tool? Never had luck trying to pull the pins out of a Micro Fit.
Pete
I use the tool that Molex sells, the Micro-Fit 3.0 Extraction Tool.
Here's the instruction sheet: https://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/ats/ATS-011030043.pdf
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Ken, Told me some software changes too. G
Since the rev on the chip is different, I suspect that is correct. However, I don't think you need the Odyssey specific one for a replacement, I've used the ones with the firmware CRM 6.0 on several Odyssey steamers, no problems at all in operation. I believe the software change may have been to make the "universal" version that works in all environments.
GGG posted:Jim Harrington posted:gunrunnerjohn posted:You can still buy the back-EMF module from Lionel, at least currently. The TMCC R4LC is readily available, add a motherboard and sound boards and go to town.
is this the same as an EER Cruise Commander M??
Yes kinda, but the last one I got was defective and guess who did not honor a warranty replacement. There are also some Serial data compatibility issues to resolve.
In reality save your self a head ache and your valuable time and go buy a new or used engine with the features you want. G
What type of serial data issues?
I just ordered one to replace the Cruise Commander M I can't seem to get working.
Well, my issues typically were that the cruise module would either not respond, or it would take off like it didn't see the serial data. If you look close at the modules, some of them are pulls from old units, and I've also gotten a bad one from Lionel. Since I didn't actually check it when I got it, I was well past any warranty by the time I wanted to use it, if there even is any warranty. Nowadays, when I get a part from Lionel for stock, I test it when I get it.
