Problems with Atlas RS-1

[cnjcomp]

It took quite a while to get the engine repaired. York, vacations, and repairs ahead of mine amounted to six weeks. Picked up the engine at Atlas on Monday and spoke to the Tech who fixed it. Seems the forward headlight burned out which caused the railsounds to go haywire.
When the bulb was replaced all worked fine. Since I don't have TMCC, I took the engine to a friends and tried it out. I think I may invest in TMCC in the future.

[cnjcomp]

Well it sort of answers my question. The voltage shifts are just not doing it. I have a Lionel Berksire TMCC engine and I realize it uses a different system to adjust chuffs, but it works great. I guess I'll just call Atlas on Monday to try to sort out whats wrong with their engine.

[Anonymous]

"Why bother with Railsounds if they don't even come close to realistic in conventional mode."

There were intelectual property issues invovled with these decisions. The only way to control the loco in conventional mode is to use the bell and whistle/horn buttons and voltage shifts. This is covered by patents held by QSI. Lionel acquired rights to this technology after the split between QSI and MTH and it is used in the new "TrainSound" equipped loco's. On a Lionel engine or car equipped with railsounds there is a wheel sensor that picks up the engine speed and adjusts RPM's or chuff frequency. Most of the licensee's went with pure electronic variations. Some of these variations work better than others.

[cnjcomp]

Thanks for the info. The only light that flickered was the forward end. When the reverse lamp lit, is was fine. I expect either a loose/shorted connection or a bad bulb. I'm lucky in the sense that I only live about an hour away from the Atlas warehouse, so hopefully they will let be bring it to them in person for repair.
My main concern is the engine RPM. Why bother with Railsounds if they don't even come close to realistic in conventional mode.

[Anonymous]

Flickering lights are usually an indication of signal problems under TMCC. This is an indication of poor antenna receptions which may be caused by a poor earth ground or just a poor antenna. The RS-1 doesn't have a lot of room under the hood and others have reported problems with the antenna/signal reception. If you don't have a command base, this may be another issue.

Railsounds controls are pretty skimpy in conventional mode. Engine RPMS' are tied strictly to velocity either by a wheel sensor or a VCO (voltage controlled oscillator). Volume control is only available from manually turning the volume potentiometer. Under TMCC comand mode you can access engine RPM's and sound volume via the CAB-1.

[cnjcomp]

Just received a JC 1203 Atlas RS-1/3 rail/wTMCC/Railsounds and have some problems with it. The manual is not too clear on what features it has, and what works in conventional mode. I'm hoping you folks can help me out.
I think its suppose to have directional lighting, but the forward light flickered for a while, and would continue to flicker and stay on even when the engine was placed into reverse and the back light would go on. Now it just doesn't work at all.
Are both lights suppose to be on in reverse.??
The second problem is the railsounds. The literature says there is suppose to be 4 levels of sound, but I only seem to get idle.
Are all 4 levels of sound suppose to work in conventional mode??

Thanks for the help.