Re: Track Power Controllers

[Steve Wise <swise@aoot.com>]

Ira Schneider wrote:
> Hi Ed,
>
> You are somewhat in error.
>
> The Lionel PowerMaster, which was superceeded by the Track Power Controller,
> receives its commands directly over the air from the CAB-1 controller.  It does not
> use the serial port.  The controller which is in the siding power box to vary the
> voltage for track 5 (i.e. the auxiliary siding power) is a PowerMaster.
>
> The Track Power Controllers (TPCs), either manufactured by IC Controls or by Lionel,
> all require the serial port to receive their commands.  The four controllers in the
> main power cart are TPCs, two are IC Controls and two are Lionel.  The one which died
> was manufactured by Lionel.
>
> One major problem with the PowerMaster is that the CAB-2 (i.e. the handheld for
> the Legacy system) cannot communicate directly with the PowerMaster.  On our
> layout you cannot control the track 5 power using a CAB-2.
>
> Lionel has a solution for that problem.  It sells a PowerMaster Bridge (which we
> purchased), which connects to the Legacy Command Base and transmits commands
> to the PowerMaster.  However, in their infinite wisdom, Lionel allows you to connect
> either the PowerMaster Bridge or the TMCC Command Base to the Legacy Command Base,
> not both.  We have the TMCC Command Base connected to the Legacy Command Base so we can
> communicate with TMCC equiped engines using the CAB-2 controller.
>
>   

Slight correction:

We have the TMCC command base connected so we can still use cab-1 remotes.


> Due to Lionel's limitations, we cannot connect our PowerMaster Bridge to the Legacy Command Base
> until we replace all of our CAB-1s with CAB-2s.  Since that is not likely to happen in the near future,
> we will have to use the CAB-1s to communicate with the PowerMaster for track 5.  Also, we did some
> testing of the PowerMaster Bridge at one of the shows.  It didn't seem to be able to control either
> our PowerMaster (for the siding power) or Steve's PowerMaster (for the industrial siding power)
> reliably.  Since we can't use it right now, we have not done any further testing to determine the
> source of the problem.
>
> The limitation of four units connected to the serial port is not normally a problem for our layout.
> We have been running four TPCs daisy chained to the Legacy Command Base for over a year.
> The problem arose when we tried to connect a fifth TPC (i.e. Steve's loaner TPC to replace
> the dead one in our power cart) without removing the dead TPC from the serial port daisy chain.
> Once we removed it, the other four TPCs worked correctly.
>
>
> Ira
>
>
>
>
> ------
> TTAT members reflector.
>