Can't Set Accessory Voltage on CW-80

A quick review of the procedure in case something was missed.

Turn throttle off.

Hold down all three bottoms - direction, whistle, bell.

Turn up throttle to desired voltage.

Release all three buttons.

Turn throttle off.

This procedure has always worked for me.  It’s surprising that you would have two CW-80’s that these steps wouldn’t work for.

Ron

@RON ARNDT 091718 posted:

A quick review of the procedure in case something was missed.

Turn throttle off.

Hold down all three bottoms - direction, whistle, bell.

Turn up throttle to desired voltage.

Release all three buttons.

Turn throttle off.

This procedure has always worked for me.  It’s surprising that you would have two CW-80’s that these steps wouldn’t work for.

Ron

That's the exact same steps I've performed on both.

Wonder what they mean by "raise the throttle slowly". I was taking 10 seconds. Too fast?

I'm slowly raising the throttle to 75 ( which should be about 14 volts).

Interesting that after trying several times, now the accessory terminals are outputting at less than 1 volts. Before I did this, they were outputting approx 8 volts.

I believe the flashing green light indicated a short somewhere. Are these units on the bench or connected to tracks?

@Bogart posted:

I believe the flashing green light indicated a short somewhere. Are these units on the bench or connected to tracks?

Nope; flashing green light does not show a short. These are just sitting on the table right now; not connected to anything.

Check the instructions above. They say after you press the 3 buttons, the green light is supposed to start flashing.

Later tonight I'll try by connecting to a test track.

I misunderstood and thought the green lights were flashing all the time. Sorry.

Jim K

Paul,

There is a fix for this but I cannot remember it. I bought a CW80 online, got it and had the same problem. I contacted the seller and he told me to.................... I can't remember. I looked around and one recommendation is to put load on the accessory terminals and then go through the procedure. Have you tried that?

I'm leery of connecting anything to the accessories terminals until I get this resolved. Would hate to have the voltage jump from the current less than 1 volt to something higher than the 8 volts (the original setting if found before I first tried these instructions).

Later tonight going to try by connecting the track posts to my test track.

Also going to try by very slowly  - and I mean very slowly - like 30 seconds - to raise the throttle. Previously I did it in 10 seconds - maybe that's too fast?

@paulp575 posted:

I'm leery of connecting anything to the accessories terminals until I get this resolved. Would hate to have the voltage jump from the current less than 1 volt to something higher than the 8 volts (the original setting if found before I first tried these instructions).

Later tonight going to try by connecting the track posts to my test track.

Also going to try by very slowly  - and I mean very slowly - like 30 seconds - to raise the throttle. Previously I did it in 10 seconds - maybe that's too fast?

Connected to a light bulb.  If something goes awry, no harm no foul.

Haven't tried connecting to light bulb. WIll try that next.

Just finished trying it with the track posts connected to the track. No change; failure.

The problem is in the step that says when you have reached the desire voltage, release the three buttons and the green light will will be solid. That's not happening.

Maybe because these are 10 and 11 years old something inside has gone awry?

It's worth a try putting a load on the accessory terminals.  Also, I raise the throttle in five seconds or less and the fixed voltage sets with no problem.

Ron

@RON ARNDT 091718 posted:

It's worth a try putting a load on the accessory terminals.  Also, I raise the throttle in five seconds or less and the fixed voltage sets with no problem.

Ron

I'll give it the 5 second try, but the instructions do say to raise it slowly.

I have tried every  suggestion with both of these transformers. Nothing is working as it should.

I bring the throttle down to zero. Pres the three buttons; green light starts flashing indicating it's in programming mode; then raise throttle to desired setting; I'm raising it to 75 as I want 14 volts; I've tried raising it quickly - like in 5 or less seconds - although the instructions say "slowly"; I've raised it taking up to 30 seconds; then I release the three buttons and that's when the green light is supposed to stop flashing indicating the voltage has been set. The green light never stops flashing until I unplug the transformer.

Wondering if the age of these transformers - one came with a RTR set in 2010 and the other in 2011 - is the problem.

Voltage on the track side is correct. I know the first time I tried this long while ago, the voltage on the accessories side was set at 8 volts and after trying to raise it, it's now stuck at 1.0 volts.

I'm thinking about giving up and moving on. This will work great on my test track for the track voltage.

I have 5 of these (don't ask); mine were manufactured after the 2nd release of them; I think after 2006; mine were white/brown box units that were sold separate from a train set and all had the date of manufacture after 2006; never had trouble with the accessory setting; had a meter connected to the acc posts; did not know about that slow stuff raising the lever; as soon as I had the buttons pressed, I just raised the lever quickly till I got the meter reading I wanted; then let go of the buttons and shoved the lever down.

Got most of mine from HobbySpeed.com; 1 from the Muffin.

Found my Lionel notes on the CW80:

CW-80s made before 2006 had issues.  In 2006, design changes were made and issues were resolved.  If the date code located on the top box flap in the lower left corner (MMDDYY) starts with a 'G', that indicates a redesigned CW80.

Both of mine have the "G" code. Both were included in the two Boy Scout sets Lionel made. One set purchased in Aug 2010; the other purchased in Aug 2011.

Unfortunaly I only have one now as one of them accidentily fell off the end of my kitchen table when I was moving things around. One of the buttons no longer work so I tossed it.

Probably only going to use the remaining one on my short test track. I had originally thought maybe use them to power my accessories, but since I'm getting a MTH Z-4000 later this year. Thinking that will be able to power both the tracks and my accessories.

I do have one Lionel 1.8 Amp (36 Watt) Accessory Transformer (6-32923), but don't think that's enough power for accessories. At this point not sure what I'm going to do with it. Maybe power my trollys on SuperStreets? What are the power requirements for trollys on SuperStreets? Hmmmmmmmm... thinking