I went up to the layout room today and turned things on first time in about two months. I run through the dcs variable channel with the legacy connection on the common terminal of the dcs variable channel output. Happened with two newer locos, latest GS-4 and the 2-8-0 Southern 630. Each loco had lights illuminate and the fan run for smoke as I dialed up the voltage on the variable channel. The sounds came on after a few seconds and it seemed like it was in a conventional mode but it did not respond to the conventional commands ie direction from the DCS hadheld. Calling it up in the legacy handheld didn't help either. Noticed on the GS-4, the headlight flickering as I was scrolling up the track voltage. Decided to shut down , disconnected the legacy set connection from the base and the connection on the dcs variable output terminal. Tried again and it was working.
Two months earlier, I had a similar experience except the locomotives did come up in conventional mode and did respond to conventional commands in the dcs handheld. at that time, I had tightened down a bit on the thumb screws making up the ground connection from the legacy set. Prior to this experience, I had done some wiring of additional track sections on the layout. I was using a buss wiring scheme to power the sections in the track.
thought about replacing my power strip which connects the zw and the Legacy set wall wart and nothing else.
DCS works fine both conventional and dcs mode.
so my question is is the legacy set perhaps going bad maybe not generating a legacy signal until its been on for a while? The set is located on a stand about a foot or two below track level along with the TIU and the ZW on the same stand. The power strip sits on a lower shelf in the stand below the transformer. The legacy set , TIU is about 4 years old or so .
appreciate your thoughts
