I'm referring to the latest transformer... Does it come with Bricks or is everything in the transformers shell like the old ZW's. Thanks
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All inside. Pretty big...
And very cool looking. I wish I could justify the purchase, but I already have lots of bricks and a Z4000, no need for yet another boat anchor!
Because I run all postwar, no need for one of these for me, but as said above, they are a GREAT looking transformer.
If you run the ZW-L in Conventional mode, do you have to lower all the throttles to zero before you can see/get any voltage from the outputs when turning the transformer on?
If you run the ZW-L in Conventional mode, do you have to lower all the throttles to zero before you can see/get any voltage from the outputs when turning the transformer on?
No you do not.
I just tried it both with and without the Legacy command base plugged in.
For both cases, with the switch set to Conventional, the voltage came up wherever the handles were set when I applied power by turning on the master switch on front of the transformer. There was no need to drop the handles back to zero (off) first.
I think only the transformer that comes in the purple box has that feature.
-Dave
Thanks for the info. Also when the transformer trips out on overload, what do you have to do to start it up? Turn it off and back on? And finally, when it's in conventional, does the emergency stop on the cab 1 or 2 still work?
I'm wondering how it compares to the ZW-C for ease of use with command. Trying to avoid having to turn up the throttle to get it to 18 volts. With the C, I use outputs B and C since they come up with turning it on. With the TPCs, TR # and Boost brings it up and it stays up. Wish the L were the same.
We all have our own operating preferences. I was in the other camp regarding the C (I hated the B&C starting at full since I often used the transformer to control 3 or 4 conventional trains on a Christmas layout). I was very happy when I received the L and found that they did design it so all handles start at zero.
As to the halt, it will not remove the voltage when in conventional mode. It only kills the voltage when in command. (which makes sense to me). The trains I had on the loops did stop in their tracks, but the voltage remained where it was. It happened these were two older TMCC engines from the late 90's, but I believe more recent engines still stop if you press halt? (didn't swap anything around while playing - sorry).
You will have to forgive me for not doing specific overload experiments at this hour. The few times I have had that scenario, I probably went and frantically killed the power out of habit, so don't recall if it's possible to recover without dialing down the handles.
-Dave
Great, thanks again. I do remember that halt stops tmcc engines. Well at least turning it off and back on will restore the voltages I'm guessing.