@Ken Gillig posted:Thanks: Vernon Barry,
I honestly thought it was more complicated than that.
Assuming that is all that CMD is, it would confirm that I have received when purchased a faulty ZW(L) as I have never been able to get the ZW(L) up to 18v.
-Ken
Let me provide a little bit more details on the difference between command mode, and conventional mode, as it can be a little tricky, to understand.
In conventional mode, the transformer acts like any other transformer made by Lionel or anybody else. You push the handles forward to increase voltage to the track you pull them back to lower the voltage from going to the track. The transformer knows nothing about Legacy or TMCC. if you only have legacy or TMCC engines, you set the transformer to full power and you run your engines from your cab remote. if you want to run a conventional engine in conjunction with a command engine, you control the conventional engine with the lever on The CW and you control the command, engine on the cab remote.
in command mode, the ZW acts like above and a power master built in. in other words it’s two devices in one. it’s actually like five devices in one, one 4 output transformer, and four power masters. The advantage of the power master is to allow you to control a conventional engine from your cab remote. You set the max voltage with the handles and then you vary the voltage to run a conventional engine with the cab remote. To use this functionality you must program the ZW, usually as a TR ID number. Each output will get an ID +1 number, so if you program output a as TR 1, output b is TR 2, etc. this assumed you would have the transformer in 4 channel mode. You also need to turn the power on with the boost button as I explained in my earlier post.
I think your problem is the ZW is not programmed correctly for command operation, as I explained earlier. The simple test for this is the ability to run a conventional engine and control the speed with the cab remote.
Hope this helps.
