I finally got the time to really try out my v1.2 Legacy base and two Cab2's. While it's great to have it back, unfortunately the red LED on both Cab2's comes on more often than it used to. What's also new is that if that red LED comes on and stays on for just a couple of seconds or longer the Cab2 very often never reconnects with the base. The display does not say "Base Not Found", the Cab2 red LED simply stays lit (maybe flickers a little as you try the throttle knob, whistle slide, etc., but not always) and for an extended amount of time you can end up with no control of your layout. I had one nasty (i.e. engine damaging) wreck becuase of this. The "workaround" I discovered is to press CTC once, allow the initial Cab2 screen to come on, watch the Cab2 red LED go out, and then press CTC again. That puts you back to where you were when the LED came on, but now with control restored. That procedure, however, does take a few seconds to execute which can be too much time in some instances. Be careful too not to press or activate anything else like the throttle knob after pressing CTC the first time or else you'll go into Cab2 info/settings mode and start scrolling around in that by accident.

In an effort to remedy this situation I reinstalled the v1.2 Base and Cab2 software, made sure both Cab2's were well charged (3 bars), and tried different combinations of the things listed below. I was able to reduce, but not eliminate, this problem by putting my Hawking antenna up onto the surface of my layout and setting the system to Channel 5.
- Channels 1, 4, 5, 7, 9.
- Standard antenna on Base on bookcase shelf under control panel
- Hawking antenna on the side of a bookcase under my control panel
- Hawking antenna up on top surface of control panel

Has anyone else had this happen to them? Any other suggestions on what to do?

Thanks.

Bob,
Sorry to hear this is also happening to you, although it helps to know I'm not crazy, at least not in terms of this problem. LOL I don't think when it happens to me the Cab2 shows anything other than the engine or train display it had up when the red LED comes on, but I'll keep an especially watchful eye on it now for anything else like what yours indicates. What's frustrating about it is that while before it used to once in awhile illuminate the red LED it would usually reconnect quickly, especially if I touched the throttle wheel, or sounded a horn, etc. Not now, I can do all that and things remain disconnected until I press CTC. Try pressing CTC when it happens to you.

Whoa. That's bizarre. I never thought of associating what I was programmning to the problem. However, now that you mention it everything had been working fine previously on the few occassions when I only had 15-20 minutes to try the system, but had not yet programmed in any of my engines or lash ups. This time with more time I decided to enter in all of my engines starting with those on the top shelf of my one display case. Those first engines were two Geeps that I entered in as separate engines and then made into a lash-up. Looking back now, that's when all the red LED problems also started to happen for me. I just never connected those dots. The one Geep is an LTI AF SP GP20 that I converted to TMCC using a Digital Dynamics Motor Mite, the other an LTI AF SP GP9 that I converted to TMCC the same way. I have them separately entered as ENG40 and ENG 80, diesels, Cab1, no sounds. Then as lash up TR5 with ENG40 (the GP20) in the lead, and ENG80 (the GP9) as the second engine with it reversed. Weird. I'll have to try undoing all that and see if my Cab2-Base connectivity issues go away. You know there are a few odd things about that lash up which I noticed different from before as well. I'll post that under a seperate title to see of others have noticed the same things. Hope we can get to the bottom of this.

I just threw the bubble wrap back in the closet! Wow. Good Post Guys. I will watch to see if jon chimes in on this one...

My suggestion is to forward this info to Lionel. This is good information for troubleshooting. Maybe it's localized but good feedback helps.

You guys are not imaging things. I've got the same problem. Until you mentioned the Lash-Up issue it didn't click with me either. When I got my base back from Ohio, I was testing it with a N&W Alco Lash-Up 2 powered units and a dummy. I changed channels I did everything but the same red light flashing was occuring.

Last night I was running just an engine and found that the problem was greatly reduced. I had an occasional flash but not as much. This IS a problem and needs to be addressed. What's going on Jon?

I'm having this problem, too. However, I run over a dozen lash-ups (some purely TMCC engines, some purely Legacy engines), and I cannot yet correlate the "base not found" message to operating a lash-up, or to anything else.

I have a funny feeling this is associated with Lionel-Ohio not clearing the engine database completely at reload. I'm guessing there is a stray data bit floating around the software kluging things up in lashup mode. I wonder if completely clearing the software aka ver1.0 and then loading 1.2 would fix the glitch?

Worth a try, Jim. Thanks for the suggestion.

I am also experiencing this "anomaly." I think it is interesting that it also started for me when I created a "Train" with two of my legacy diesels.

This happens sporadically, and lasts a just few seconds, where the red light is ON on the CAB-2. Then, either the engine control returns, or I get a brief "Base not Found", then followed by restore to normal operation.

I'm gonna clear and reload the engines to test Jim's theory. (I only have my 4 Legacy Diesels in right now, plus my two TPCs, so it's trivial to reenter the data.) I'll report back...

good info!

-Don

My database had been freshly cleared/deleted before I sent my Legacy system to Lionel-Ohio for its v1.2 update. Just a few days before the v1.2 announcement I had experienced the "old" Base not Found problem and followed the base and Cab2 software reload procedures which back then including Lionel's recommendation to clear the database. Let me know if clearing yours now makes any difference to this problem, but mine started off completely empty and I have experienced both the prolonged red LED on problem (no "Base Not Found" message, just the red LED on and no control), and the "dumber" lash-up behaviors (described under separate discussion, but in summary any engine reversed in a lash-up has its default direction also reversed when run separately as an engine, the TR address does not toggle that engine all the way into lash-up config like it used to it needs to be reversed at the start, etc.). This weekend I will try ridding my database of lash-ups and lash-up engines to see if that makes any difference. My engines are not Legacy engines, but I've tried them as Cab1 engines and lash-up and TMCC engine and lash-up, but didn't notice any difference in terms of Cab2-Base connectivity or better separate engine and/or lash-up behaviors.

Try pressing CTC when the red LED comes to regain connection with the base. Doing so when the LED stays on seems to clear the head of my Cab2. It connects with the base (the LED goes out)and then by pressing CTC a second time I'm back to where I was only once again with control.

I'm stumped. I'm getting the timeout error and I don't have any lashups in the memory.(but I DO have a TRack address for TPC's and PowerMasters) I'm getting it when blowing the horn, or otherwise. If I send commands rapidly, (think dipping the horn repeatedly) its like the base looses its place and says "fuggetit, I'm confused, you figure it out". The CTC button sequence sometimes fixes it, but 1 out of 3 times I got to reboot the Cab-2. This is happening within 2 feet of the base, btw.
Next step is to delete the TR address completely and see if it happens.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Battaglia:
I'm stumped. I'm getting the timeout error and I don't have any lashups in the memory.(but I DO have a TRack address for TPC's and PowerMasters) I'm getting it when blowing the horn, or otherwise. If I send commands rapidly, (think dipping the horn repeatedly) its like the base looses its place and says "fuggetit, I'm confused, you figure it out".
...

I hate to say "Me Too", but well, "Me Too."

Pressing CTC has restored control every time (so far). No CAB reboots that I can tell, and I'd say this has happened about 4 times total, twice since I cleared the DB last night and added back my 4 legacy engines and TPCs.

The only "TR"s I have assigned in the database are my two TPC-400s.

-Don

I am having similar problems. Last week I had a problem with TR scrolling(lash ups), losing TR Data and base disconnects that required rebooting the CAB2. Jon from Lionel had me delete my entire data base and start over. This cured my other problems but the base disconnect is still there, only not as often. Pressing ENG or AUX1 or CTC will reconnect, I haven't had to reboot to re-establish communication since clearing the data base but the problem is still there. I have also tried reloading V1.2 but this doesn' help.
JIm

The net net for me after more deleting and reentering engines and lash-ups under Cab1, TMCC, even tried Legacy (under which my non-Legacy engines actually ran just not any better than under Cab1 or TMCC, so back to Cab1 they went) - - there is noticeably a propensity for my Cab2 to lose connection with the base and remain disconnected when I address or run a lash-up (i.e. TRX). When this happens the Cab2 red LED comes on and stays on (it might flicker a bit as I attempt to do something with the Cab2), there is no "Base Not Found" message on the Cab2 display, and the only thing that restores connection with the base is if I press CTC, let them reconnect (red LED goes out), and press CTC again to get back to where I was (i.e. addressing or running that lash-up). Without addressing or running a lash-up, the red LED only comes on occassionally and then only momentarily as the the Cab2 otherwise manages to quickly regain connection with the base. Would be nice to know why and how to remedy this condition.

Back earley this spring I was having the Base Not Found problem and was not able to correct it. I sent the base back to Lionel for exchange for a new base, that cured that problem. Now I am having a problem of no signal to Legacy engines, and TMMC engines will not run when going through the Legacy base, That base is now in Lionels hands for exchange or repair. I am having more problems with this system and can not correct them when compared to TMMC and DCS systems. I hope these problems will be corrected other wise I have wasted the cost of the system.

I had the nephews over today, and we ran the trains around for a good two hours straight. Since I last re-entered the engines into the Legacy Base, this has not repeated for me.

monitoring shall continue...

-Don

OHIO, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. I use TR 1 to turn on main line track power with a TCP 3000. No problem. I use TR 2 thru 5 to control a ZW. When I get to TR 5 for the subway loop. I get the red light on the cab 2 and no control of anything. I'm standing 3' from the command base. I had to turn off the cab 2 and turn it back on to reconnect. OK Jon, what's going on and what is the fix?

Jim D.

TR5 is also the lash-up with which I have the most Cab2-Base disconnects. TR1, 2, and 3 are for my TCP400's, I skip TR4 (you never know when another TPC might come into the picture). TR5 on up are the the designations of my multi-engine lash ups. TR5 is the first and it is comprised of the SP GP20 and SP GP9 described in previous posts - - the first two engines that I pulled out of my display cases to enter into to my completely clean v1.2 database, the first lash-up I built and later realized correlated to when the Cab2-Base disconnect problem first started (although I didn't make that connection until Bob brought it up later in his posts). I tried deleting and reentering TR5 a number of times and in different ways, but I did not assign it some other number than 5. I'll try that and see if things work differently. Odd - - Channel 5 works best for me (Cab2-base disconnect the least often), but TR5 could be the culprit.

Although I have no Lashups at the moment I did build one to see if I could duplicate the issues and could not. I have been OK so far.

As far as throwing out info, it's a great help I would imagine in narrowing this down. It maybe the littlest thing that might have an impact. Good information in this thread.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim D:
OHIO, WE HAVE A PROBLEM. ......OK Jon, what's going on and what is the fix?
Jim D.

Jim, and fellow forumites, we are looking into this; keep the info flowing. We will keep you all advised of our findings.

I got my base back from Lionel and am having "Base not found" all the time. My layout is not that big and half the time I am right near the base..What can I do? change channels? put regular batteries in? thanks Cincytrains

Thanks Jon. I'm sure you guys will come up with a fix.

Jim D.

I'm going to reload version 1.0 tomorrow into my base and remote and see if that has any effect.