Hi everyone:
I recently acquired a Lionel GP-20 with sound along with the required push botton control to operate the horn. Testing it with a regular power pack with a tether conrol, it works great. On the layout with the TE system from Aristo in Linear mode and with no horn button attached to the rails, the Lionel runs great, but the horn blows and blows continually.
does the TE system of transmitter/receiver interfere with the Lionel sound system somehow??
Dick
I don’t know this system specifically, but:
is a “regular power pack” AC or DC?
I assume the TE is connected to the tracks… what voltage are you supplying?
Greg
Hi Greg:
I should have been clearer on the power pack. This is a Lionel “G” scale Geep which of course needs DC. The power supply I use for testing on my bench is a 10amp DC power supply with the tether cord to the controls. Regular in the sense that it isn’t a TE system. I can hook the horn button to the test track and the engine works as it should, engine sounds works, horn works when the horn button is pushed. When I put it on the layout as I mentioned, the engines sounds are there but the horn wants to keep blowing, continual beep beep beep around the layout, in forward and reverse. And this is without the horn actuating button hooked up to the layout. And I have the transmitters on linear rather than PWC.
My TE system is Aristo’s 27 MHZ units on the layout. Probably around 18 to 20 VDC. Electrical interference somehow??
Dick
Whose power pack is it?
If it is 10 amps with a remote tether, it’s possible it is still putting out PWM.
Greg
the power pack I use on my test bench is a Chicago Model International super Blue model 156 with a telephone line plug to plug the controller into. This power pack/controller is solely for my test bench and is not used on the layout.
On this power supply the Lionel Geep works as it should including the horn button when I alligator clip it to the test track. I have presumed it is linear. I thought perhaps Aristo was the lone wolf with PWC, which is not like the old HO pulse power packs.
What I don’t understand yet is why the horn is blowing in the first place on the layout where I use only Aristocrafts 27mhz Train engineer system. I don’t even have the horn button clipped to the track to actuate the horn. All my engines that are not Aristocraft are run on linear mode. If I have only Aristo engines running on the layout I will switch to PWC mode.
This all just leads me to think that Lionels sound system is affected somehow by the Aristocraft train engineer transmitter/receiver system and some signal or frequency is telling the horn to blow.
Lionel’s geep sound system can get so obnoxiously loud, wow!! I have to turn it way down as low as I can and still hear everything okay. But boy when that horn gets to blowing there isn’t a cow within 50 miles of the railroad tracks. LOL. The Lionel Geep is a really strong puller, I think it could pull out tree stumps.
Anyway I would have thought after all the years that these geeps have been around some of you guys may have run into this problem also.
.
Rich, we have several Lionel GP-20’s that operate on the DGRS garden railway at the CRRM without any problems. We use the 72mhz Train Engineer set to linear output to the tracks. Power is supplied by Bridgewerks Mag 15 packs.
Hope you find out what is causing the problem,
Alan
Thanks Alan:
Glad to hear that. Do you guys use the Lionel button control at all?
I’ll do some more running with it and see what happens, maybe it could my brass track has a little more dirt on it than I think. And I haven’t hooked the horn actuator button to the layout yet to see how the geep reacts.
Dick
Richard Chapple Sr said: maybe it could my brass track has a little more dirt on it than I think. Dick
Some sound systems will trigger sounds when it senses power changes!
Dick,
both of the Lionel GP-20 operators use the button controls for the horns and the TE for speed and direction. The sound is very nice on these but like you said needs to be turned down a bunch. I have always thought that a set of these would look good in the GM paint scheme.
Alan
Dick
I don’t know anything about this Lionel stuff. What happens if you hook the horn button to the layout?
Tom
So, not really clearly stated, but the layout where the horn blows constantly is powered by some power supply, as of yet not described, and then through an Aristo TE, I assume a trackside unit.
what voltage is the power supply itself?
what manufacturer is the power supply?
Have you cycled the PWC / Linear switch several times on your TE?
Per Dan Pierce, the Linear mode just adds a capacitor to the PWM output of the TE, so if it has failed, you get PWM no matter what… and that would INDEED blow the horn continuousle.
So, still would like answers to questions 1 to 3.
Greg
The same thing would happen to my Bug Mauler sound unit when I forgot to turn off the PWM on the 27 MHz Trackside TE (Crest 10amp 18 Volt Ultima Power Supply). The damn whistle blew constantly.
It got so that I could get to the TE within three toots from anywhere on the layout to throw the switch.
Great minds think alike…
but then there’s you and me too… 