Due to alot of posts and threads I have been seing about Legacy, I’m sure there are alot of people out there considering the system. To some it may just be a “Dream”. To others, its someting to keep away until “I get a bigger layout”. Well, for those who just want a system and are arguing over whether to get the Classic TMCC 1 or TMCC Legacy, heres a chart made by acutal operators. (Chief and Marty and others are welcome to add to this.)
Legacy - You can scroll through the engine list & pick one.
Can name the engine - ex. “Challenger”
Add road name - “Reading RR”
Add your layout name. - “Pennvalley”
No doubt in my mind, Legacy is worth it if you have the extra bucks.
I bought it because my cab-1 is on it’s way out & wanted the added features.
LHS - $270 + tax.
Since my cab-1 is shot, I figure Legacy cost me $200 (+/-).
Your local hobbyshop that sells R/C cars or planes will have them. I have a few pairs from a few years back. I did a swap just to see what would happen , all was good with the 3 pairs I tried.
I like the fact that it can sit in the cradel and I can still use it. Try that with any other remote. They would have to be velcro’d or something. The Legacy Base/controller become part of my control panel…that just happens to be able to be picked up and taken with me.
A much inproved control over TMCC1 with Odyssey, a better performance of Pullmors w/ TMCC, and the ability to return to the same speed setting because of visual cues!
About the only reason to buy the old system at this point in time is if you really only want to control conventional equipment or have a lot of PS-2 loco’s and have purchased DCS. You can get away wih a CAB-1/CB and Powermasters (ugh) or CAB-1/CB and a new ZW and control conventional trains quite nicely with remote throttle capability. If you have DCS and want/need to run TMCC you need to use the older system until someone comes up with a work around to allow the Legacy base to interact with the TIU (no rocks, please, this is just a statement of the situatuion. If you want to get into a blame game p*ssing match take it somewhere else). The new system allows so many advances over the original it is hard to justify buying the old system unless you have specific needs that dictate it.
The harder sell is for someone like myslef that has a significant investment in the original equipment and has no immediate need for the more advanced features or doesn’t use things like cruise control or try to lash up dis-similar loco’s. I don’t have any Legacy loco’s and haven’t seen a “must have” to date. I’ve seen what Legacy can do and there are features of the new system I can use/would like. I will be getting it but it isn’t a terribly high priority right now.
“If you have DCS and want/need to run TMCC you need to use the older system until someone comes up with a work around to allow the Legacy base to interact with the TIU”
If I’m not mistaken, Barry Broskowitz over on the OGR forum figured that it will work fine if you just use a straight RS-232 to RS-232 cable. No null modem cables, no MTH “black box” cable-just a plain, straight RS-232 cable. You also have to go from serial port to serial port, without using the Lione supplied Y cable.
This would mean that if you wanted to use the IC controls devices, you would need to open the connector and solder wires onto the relevent pins.
In any case, though, I’m sort of in the same situation as Chuck, although I don’t have all that many TMCC engines either. Right now, I have Legacy on the table to purchase in probably the next year, however I have no real pressing reason to buy it. Probably the biggest selling point for me is the fact that I can use it as Marty describes with it docked in the base-I honestly don’t much like handhelds, and would have bought the Yardmaster from several years ago in a heartbeat had it ever materialized.
Before buying Legacy, I think that I would much rather spend some money on upgrading engines I already have to TMCC, or, if it becomes a viable option in the near future, going ahead and upgrading to Legacy.
you can use the supplied y cable and run the tiu and legacy that way. if you have tpc’s the way I was able to get it to work was to add another db 9 connector to the serial comm side of y cable so you hookup both the tiu and the cable coming from your tpc’s then hook the command base plug to the old tmcc-1 base I can use all 3 remotes and systems . the dcs and legacy can be used at the same time to control seperate loops of track . not sure if you can use both on same loop of track never tried that. if you ever get legacy and have the 50’s era engines your in for a surprise they can be made to run smooth and startup easily and no rocket ship starts its awesome what it can do. hope you get it soon you won’t regret it. have a great day. if you need the wire and pin #'s let me know I’ll e-mail it to you. only reason I know it is our cat got hold of the y cable that came with legacy so had to gingerly saw it apart to find what went where wow what an adventure that was.
marty ,have you had any interference with other tpc’s or transformers being to close to the legacy base . I may have to move mine if I turn my back on the base with the legacy remote red light on remote comes on if I turn around it goes off. let me know when you get a chance thanks.
$265 at Todd’s Makes DCS look like a Model T. [for Don Baker only] No, it is a great improvement over CAB1 but I did not have a problem with CAB1. Lot easier to usee than DCS remote [no joke here]. Not sure Barry’s cable thing is working as good as they thought at first.
One negative is that if you want a second hand held the Legacy add on charger base and controller cost about the same as the primary base and controller. This is in the area of 4 X the cost of a CAB-1.
I am not one of “those,” but I do have a suggestion for increasing the utility of this thread for “them.” Define your terms. Knowing which system allows an operator to “Add individual names to controlled items” or “Change Channel Frequency of Base/Remote” is of no value whatsoever unless the operator knows what those terms mean. Someone unversed in the command control world is unable to make any real use of the information provided in this thread as it stands.
First, [tup][tup][tup][tup] Great thread Grayson, and VERY good initial post !!! (I have modified Grayson’s post, as indicated in bold print)
[quote user=“magicman710”]
Due to alot of posts and threads I have been seing about Legacy, I’m sure there are alot of people out there considering the system. To some it may just be a “Dream”. To others, its someting to keep away until “I get a bigger layout”. Well, for those who just want a system and are arguing over whether to get the Classic TMCC 1 or TMCC Legacy, heres a chart made by acutal operators. (Chief and Marty and others are welcome to add to this.)
may i ask a question sort of related to the topic?
i currently have 4 CAB1’s so different people can control different trains. how would i do this with legacy? would i have to have 4 cradles? if not, how does charging happen?
Fjerome - IMO, I don’t think you would need to change much. Assuming you have a Legacy engine, (primary reason for puchasing Legacy system.) You would still be able to run with TMCC, and your Cab1’s. You would NOT be able to take advantage of some of the advanced features in the Legacy Engine, if you were operating it with a Cab1. If you had 1 Legacy controller, then you would still be able to operate all the TMCC engines, and let the guests use the Cab1 since it is easier.
If you want to replace all your Cab-1s with Legacy Controllers you would need 1 Command Base and 3 addons. The addon bases attach to the Command Base and provide the power to charge the additional controllers (at least that is my understanding).
HOWEVER, you can use your Legacy Command Base, and daisy chain your existing TMCC command base off the Legacy base, this allows you to have 5 controllers as Don Baker states above.
I thought I would throw my $.02 into the discussion. I have six engines, five are PS2 and one is TMCC1. I have been using DCS for a little over 18 months and have had no issues. I think it is a great system. Having said that, when deciding amongst the three major options, usability needs to be factored. My biggest gripe with the DCS remote is the thumb wheel. The red dial on the Cab1 is way more intuitive. The red dial on the new Legacy is even better. The tactile feedback of the dial is a huge improvement over the original Cab1. I do not know how you would place that in the “comparison spreadsheet,” but it should not be a trivial factor.