lionel 5.0 sound

[bigdogjeff]

 i have a lionel that has 5.0 sound and sometimes the sound is crackly so i have to pull the battery to reset it anyone know whats wrong

[chuck]

Do you mean RailSounds 5.0? Are you running the locomotive in command or conventional mode? There are a few likely causes for speaker noise. The easiest to test is the volume and volume control. If you turn the volume knob too far up you can get distortion from the amplifier used to drive the speaker. You may also have moved the potentiometer (electrical component that adjusts the volume) too far. You might have a bad/damaged speaker. I would recommend backing off the volume control and listen to see if the distortion goes away.

[sulafool]

 The volume pot itself could be flaky. It's a common replacement part-- L must have a giant stockpile of crappy ones

[bigdogjeff]

yes railsounds 5.0. i am running in command trainmaster. i had changed the battery and it went away until a car derailed then it made a few crackle sounds with no horn or any talk sound coming through then i reset the battery and it was fine again.

[chuck]

Check the battery contacts in the tender. The nine volt style connector has the "prawls" that wrap around the one terminal. If these are slightly splayed, the battery can't make good contact. I never run with batteries in command mode. It isn't necessary as the track power allows for proper shutdown sounds and I'm really not concerned about the noises a train makes if there is a derailment or collision.

[Anonymous]

Jeff - do yourself a favor and remove the battery! Also, you mentioned a derailment. You should do a factory reset on the engine (look in the manual because it can vary from engine to engine).

[bigdogjeff]

I pulled the battery and it seemed like it was fine then it did it again lost sound and had alot of crackling sound.  I shut it down a few times and had got sound back. I went on lionel sight and they have Q and A section so i looked up that if there is static i can cause a train board to loose sound . Lionel has a reset code you can program into the engine to reprogram it but i dont want to mess the sound board up any more then what it is. there are so many codes for all diffrent engins.

[chuck]

The codes are fairly generic. The don't affect the sound set/features, just how the command codes will be interpreted. The reset code for your specific engine should be identified in the back of your owners manual. If you post the model number of your locomotive we can probably cross reference the list you found to get a match. The codes are rarely specific to an engine, more like a diesel with ditch lights or wireless tether.

[bigdogjeff]

So that may not be my problem then. I was just out in the train room running it and i just cant figure it out it was running fine. I even derailed it on a switch and it was allright. But when you buy a new engine you want it perfect can youall understand my pain. i get frustrated when something just dont add up.

 

[chuck]

It could be a damaged potentiometer or a bad connection to the speaker or a bad speaker.