Something, whether its my speaker being cracked or what, is wrong with my Legacy CSX SD40.
Whenever I just power up the engine, not even when I start the sounds, the fuel tank (Where the speaker is) is not making the high pitched crackling normally occosiated with cracked speakers, its more of a staticy soft sound. (But noticable enough to be displeasent).
If it is a busted speaker, Lionel needs to step up on its design. If they make the sound system loud enough to break a speaker, it needs to be turned down a notch.
I might get a video up tomorrow with it doing it.
I can’t imagine a speaker in a Lionel engine cracking, as most engines(or at least the sub-$1000 ones) have a paper cone speaker.
I’m wondering if perhaps your volume potentiometer is dirty or otherwise has some crud on it. This happens from time to time, and the fix is to just rotate the pot back and forth a few times, finally settling on some place close to the original position.
Does it also crackle when you play a sound out of it? If it’s crackling when it’s not even supposed to be playing a sound, that’s not right. If it doesn’t do it then, then I would say that your speaker is probably ok, but something else isn’t right. Also, does it do it when you are not in legacy mode? Like suggested, turn down the volume knob and see if it changes anything. I think with legacy enabled, that knob is bypassed.
Wes
Wes,
I don’t believe the volume pot is ever bypassed, it is used to set max level regardless of conv, tmcc or legacy. As stated by ben sometimes they get a little dirty or corrosion and just running it up and down will sometimes clean it up and correct some erratic sounds. I generally keep them turned up to full volume and use the cab-1 to adjust it down if warranted. [{(-_-)}]
Doug,
As an aside, for maximum volume, it’s often not the best practice to crank the volume pot all the way on. Typically, you’ll find that the volume is slightly louder if you back off of the maximum setting a little bit. Usually the best way to determine this, though, is to turn the pot with the sound on and find the loudest spot.
#1, it is CSX. [:-^] Now, tried a factory reset? Too much smoke fluid on the sound board? Simple is to try as Ben and Doug suggested. Turn the sound “pot” back and forth and then full. This new of an engine, should not be that but the is an easy one. Reset and this does not work, bad sound board or “pot”. Dick Teal says lots of sound problems are faulty “pots”. I had an Atlas do this [it was several years old]. Atlas replaced sound board almost overnight for free. Why I like Atlas engines. Patience, you have warranty.
Grayson,
I don’t know if this would apply to your static sounds, but I remember in one of your older posts you said you were getting sparking on the center rail of your new track. I had much trouble with sounds on my MTH engines until I took a brite boy track eraser and cleaned the center rail down to bare metal (removed all the black coating). Sound was then crystal clear. Keeping wheels, rollers, and track clean solved all my problems with static. Good Luck, Ken