Just curious; for those who have run conventional or TMCC that does not have cruse control does the ZW-L make a difference in proformance?
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Hey Chris,
I have a ZW-L. In conventional mode, it supports 200 speed steps. That gives really fine voltage control. For can motored engines , I do not see a difference. Where I see a difference is with the old pullmor motor conventional locs. They seem to run at much slower speeds. The old motors seem to respond well to the chopped sign wave when run in conventional mode.
I can't say I've noticed a difference with pullmor tmcc locs. When I run those engines, I have the zw-l set to max voltage. At max voltage, the power is almost a pure sign wave. The perform well but I wouldn't say their performance really improves
I can believe that the ZW-L may do good things for conventional running with AC motors. I replaced the standard TMCC package in my dual Pulmore motored Phantom locomotive with the ERR AC Commander. The difference between 32 speed steps and 100 speed steps was huge, it has really good low speed performance now, much better than with the stock 32 speed step board! It was like getting a new locomotive.
Lee Willis who runs all conventional reported his trains were running better after installing his new ZW-L a while back. I think he did a report on it here somewhere. I am all command control, but don't have one yet. I think it would sure be a nice thing to have, maybe someday.
I found out the hard way that the Z4K runs my MTH and Legacy locos better than the ZW-L. I never had the three blinking lights on my VL BB till I powered it up by the ZW conventionally under identical conditions as the Z4K.
Originally Posted by BigBoy4014:
I found out the hard way that the Z4K runs my MTH and Legacy locos better than the ZW-L. I never had the three blinking lights on my VL BB till I powered it up by the ZW conventionally under identical conditions as the Z4K.
That is interesting, the VL BB does not have a 3 blink error code that operates like the previous Legacy locos.
Originally Posted by SantaFeFan:
That is interesting, the VL BB does not have a 3 blink error code that operates like the previous Legacy locos.
That's REALLY interesting, how does it indicate smoke unit issues?
The "Blink" code for the VL Big Boy. Notice no 3,5,7...
1 Main drive motor stalled.
2 Smoke 1 (Stack smoke) element problem.
4 Smoke 2 (Stack smoke) element problem.
6 Smoke 3 (Whistle smoke) element problem.
8 Smoke 4 (Blowdown smoke) element problem.
I wonder what happens if you have a motor issue?
Originally Posted by gunrunnerjohn:
Originally Posted by SantaFeFan:
That is interesting, the VL BB does not have a 3 blink error code that operates like the previous Legacy locos.
That's REALLY interesting, how does it indicate smoke unit issues?
It calls Concord NC and speaks with a Customer Service Repair Person Directly, bypassing your need to get involved! When you wake up in the morning it is fixed!
And here I wondered why I had to set a WiFi channel for the VL-BB, mystery solved! 
May be it was 2 or 4 then, I know it DID blink a few times and I shut it down quickly. Then I ran it in Legacy mode and did not have a problem.
Sorry for any confusion.
Originally Posted by SantaFeFan:
Originally Posted by BigBoy4014:
I found out the hard way that the Z4K runs my MTH and Legacy locos better than the ZW-L. I never had the three blinking lights on my VL BB till I powered it up by the ZW conventionally under identical conditions as the Z4K.
That is interesting, the VL BB does not have a 3 blink error code that operates like the previous Legacy locos.
