Digital Command System, I'm a believer!

Rick, glad you are enjoying your upgrade.  Both DCS and Lionel's TMCC/Legacy operating systems bring new adventures to the O gauge railroad hobby.  Compare these systems to the original transformer, engine with a horn, whistle, headlight and maybe smoke.  Now you can be your own engineer of a locomotive and operator of a layout empire.  Thank you for posting.

 

Steve, Lady and Tex

As an early adopter of both systems I can say they are worth their weight to me.  I enjoy having the freedom to move around the layout.

 

You've opened a whole new world.  Have fun!

Welcome to the DCS side of the force. I am looking forward to completing your training. Oops, sorry. Wrong movie.

 

I've had DCS since 2002 and it has been a lot of fun. Most of my engines are Proto-2 or Proto-3, though I have several TMCC locomotives as well. Both TMCC/Legacy and DCS have peacefully coexisted on the club layout for more than a decade. One thing I've looked at for my eventual home layout is using an AIU (Accessory Interface Unit). It wasn't practical for the club because we use two systems.

which side of the Force?

Yes I also have gotten a friend to go to the DCS Side we are hooking it up after the first of the year when he and his wife get back from Florida

Welcome to the full command club.

 

The breakers on the Z1000 (and Z750) are thermal breakers, and they take a significant overload for a short time before they trip.  You need external circuit protection when you're using those with the TIU as you have now discovered.

 

It's the dark side

Welcome to the dark side.

The dark side is more fun anyway. Welcome.
As to not having a progamming track, sight unseen i think you can. You have 4 outputs. Thats 1 heck of a shelf layout, if you are using them. Get yourself a 30 inch sectionof track, q lock on and a length of speaker wire. No reason the programming track can't be on the floor, for all the times you will use it.

As to blowing the 20 amp fuse, if you figure out how you are doing it, please share. If i have a derailment my z1000 fuse trips very quickly. I periodically go through spurts of blowing those 20amp fuses. Hasnt happened since i removed all of the MTH black and red wires feeding the layout and switched to speaker wire, either crimped jn the lockout post holes, or on spade connectors. Im not saying that was my solution. I have a large packet of the fuses and a puller.

Very Odd.

I have popped the Z-1000 breakers (2 of them online) many times, and never popped a TIU fuse.

Gotta be the wiring, I use heavy wire everywhere, so the current load goes right to the brick.

The wiring for my loop of track is 14AWG from the TIU to the closest point on the track, with a 14AWG paired wire as a bus wire run around to the mid point of the loop.  

 

On the second derailment there was a shower of sparks from the affected cars wheels, and I quickly pulled the power supply plug out of the outlet.  No tripped breakers or blown fuses.  On the third derailment, the breaker on the Z 1000 tripped, no blown fuse.

 

Since then 5 hours of operating) no derailments, no circuit issues.

I use the PowerHouse 180 bricks, and on countless breaker trips, the TIU fuses have never been touched.

I run both DCS and Lionel TMCC on the same layout. I love both systems and really have no favorite. It certainly is a lot different than conventional. Some day I may upgrade the TMCC to Legacy.

 

I have tripped my Lionel powerhouse bricks a few times in the past 7 years. Though I have never blown a fuse in my TIU.

 

Having both systems is the best in o-gauge operation.

I have also popped the breaker on my 180 watt brick many times on my overhead layout, and it did blow the fuse inside the TIU once.... way back when it was new. I didn't even know there was a fuse inside the thing until I called MTH about the problem. Chances are it was a bad fuse to begin with as that was the only time it ever blew out.