Another CW80 Voltage Question

You're fine. 

The cheap meter is fooling you.

As long as you have the accessory voltage set at a point where you are satisfied w/ the operation of everything there is no worry.  

Thanks for the reply Rob, and thanks for posting that conversion chart on that older thread. 

That's a valuable resource for the many folks with one of these transformers.

It saves one from spending big bucks on a true RMS meter just to read a CW 80 because of its quirky design.

Something sounds quirky - connect the meter in-line on the hot side and set it to AC amperage - get a reading at full load (with lights) and low load (crossing signal only, no lights)

Meter lead to transformer terminal - second meter lead to ACC hot wire

A modern crossing signal should only draw tenths (.025) of an amp - a single small incandescent light bulb can draw .25

The ammeter function will have similar issues measuring non sinusoidal waveforms, that's not likely to tell you much.

As it turns out, I was "googling" this issue just prior to Robs reply and ran across a "Trainfacts" article from Dale Manquen that goes into lengthy detail about the Lionel CW-80.

( I was thinking Dale would have the answer if he was still with us)

Dale mentioned on more than one occasion in his writeup that checking voltage with a standard meter with little or no voltage load could yield a maximum voltage readout with the transformer at 0.

Trainfacts CW 80 Dale Manquen

"Each of the Triacs is bypassed by a resistor and capacitor in series to reduce transients across the Triacs. NOTE: These rather large 1 uF capacitors will cause misleading output voltage readings on a high-impedance digital voltmeter if there is little or no resistance connected from A or B to U at the output. The impedance of the capacitor, even with the Triac shut off, will be much lower than the input impedance of the digital voltmeter, causing virtually the entire available 18 VAC to appear across the meter. When testing this transformer, add a light bulb across the output being tested. The bulb will not only offer a low resistance shunt to help the meter read correctly, but it will also give a visual indication of what is happening with the output voltage as the lever is changed or the Accessory voltage is programmed."

Thanks again Dale! God Bless!

Rick,

I am glad his son keeps the site up. I copied everything expecting it to come down eventually.

So, rig up a bulb and test again