Conventional, Lionchief, TMCC

Dear Santa,

I have a similar setup as yours, except for the fact mine is Legacy. I leave the Power Masters in conventional all the time. If running TMCC or Legacy just crank them up to max, and I do have volt and ammeters wire into the layout, ammeters show me if there is a short, volt meters show track voltage so if you go from one loop to another you can adjust the volts accordingly.

I hope l answered your question.

Ray

Rayin "S"

Thanks for replying with your experience! I like your post script Bible verse too.

Question when you leave the PowerMaster in conventional how does your remote get a signal to TMCC engines?

I have been thinking about this more as I plan my TMCC install, seems that to run Lion Chief or Blue Tooth the Power Masters would just stay on Command to put the 18v on the track.

Help me with what I am missing in understanding all the technology.

@Santa Bill K posted:

Question when you leave the PowerMaster in conventional how does your remote get a signal to TMCC engines?

The Command/Conventional setting doesn't affect the TMCC/Legacy signal, it just determines if the PowerMaster will be in variable or fixed mode.  The TMCC/Legacy signal is always there.

Thank you gunrunnerjohn!

you got right to the point of what I needed to understand.

Bill,

Here's the secret:  Your PowerMaster receives, but doesn't interact with, the TMCC/Legacy signal.  It neither increases nor reduces it.  It neither turns it on, nor turns it off.

The command/conventional switch on it also doesn't interact with, the TMCC/Legacy signal.  It also neither increases nor reduces it.  It also neither turns it on, nor turns it off.

As John points out this switch only sets the voltage to the track.  There are two choices:

1. Command -- Full input voltage passes right through the PowerMaster to the track.  Whatever goes in to it, also comes out of it.  If a PowerHouse is feeding it, say a PH-135 or 180, then this would be 18 VAC steady.  If you're feeding it with an traditional old transformer, e.g., a ZW, then it would somewhere between 0 and 18 VAC, depending on what position the throttle handle on that old transformer is set at.
2. Conventional -- Full input voltage comes into the PowerMaster but what goes out to the track depends on the level you set with the red knob on the CAB-x, from 0 to 18 VAC (assuming 18 VAC is coming into the PowerMaster).

For this reason I, and others here based on the comments we see in the thread above this one, just leave the switch in the conventional position and use the red knob to set track voltage to maximum in order to power the track for command locomotives.

Mike

@Santa Bill K posted:

Thank you gunrunnerjohn!

you got right to the point of what I needed to understand.

John is our resident expert on Legacy/TMCC and probably anything electronic, he is always ready to help us rookies in the electronic areas, as you said , Thank you John for all you do here.

Ray

Wow, never too old to learn.  Always under the assumption that when the Powermaster was switched to conventional it cut out the TMCC signal.  Thanks Santa for asking the question and all that responded.

@TomNe posted:

Wow, never too old to learn.  Always under the assumption that when the Powermaster was switched to conventional it cut out the TMCC signal.  Thanks Santa for asking the question and all that responded.

It's actually not as easy as you might imagine to simply "cut off" the TMCC signal.