Still having that problem with 2 of my engines starting up when applying power but it seems to be my 2 mth diesels not my steam engines they are all ps2 and it seems that they run with 7s all the way around unless i put a tmcc engine on then it the ps2 engine reading goes down like i said before. I thought the battery was the fixed because it started up a few times normal when i had no other engine on the track. Barry i was reading your book on this and could this maybe be that my old 275 zw not applying enough power at first sometimes and sometimes it does apply enough power. but that doesn't explain why it doesn't do this to my steam engines. But if it was the dcs tiu it would do this all the time no matter what engine and my reading would always be low and its not its 7s unless i have my tmcc engines on the siding while running my ps2. very frustrating
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could this maybe be that my old 275 zw not applying enough power at first sometimes and sometimes it does apply enough power
This is one of those questions with an answer of "that depends..."
There are two variables that come to mind. The first is how fast you raise the ZW's handle and the second is what release of DCS you're running.
The watchdog signal that tells a PS2/3 engine that DCS is present and to come up in command mode is of a brief duration. In DCS releases prior to 4.0 the duration was about half a second. Under 4.0 or later the duration was extended to 5 seconds.
If the watchdog expires before the engine is getting at least 9-10 volts, there is a good chance that the engine will miss seeing it and come up in conventional mode.
Further, low DCS signal strength can exacerbate the situation and make it more likely that the engine will miss the watchdog. As an experiment, trade places on the track between the diesels and the steamers, and see if the problem moves to the steamers. If it does, then I'd check for good DCS signal strength where the diesels normally sit on their tracks.
Clean the diesels' wheels and pickup rollers.
Are the steamers and the diesels different generations of PS2 boards, i.e., 5 volt vs. 3 volt?
not sure but some of the steam engines are old ps2 and the sd 70 is from 2011