what does 1 clank mean on a Z4000
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I think you mean you are trying to run a Protosound 1 engine, and getting 1 clank from the engine.
https://mthtrains.com/sites/de...shooting%20chart.pdf
Are you getting only 1 clank on powerup? or 2 is normal, 3 is bad.
Not clanks. At power up you will get 2 chimes (bell/ding) followed by start up sounds. Your in reset, not neutral. If voltage was set high above about 12V, if you drop power and bring it back quickly it will think your trying to program it and move to reset position 1 and sound 1 ding. Continue to do it and it will count up in dings until 5 which is a clank. If it can't move past one ding, there is a conflict with ID setting and the processor needs to be reprogrammed with specialty chip. G
Great technical and complete explanation GGG.
I used to have problems with starting up my MTH locomotives using the Z4000 running conventionally, but now I don't; in fact, I have not had any such problems like this since I joined the Forum in November 2017 because I learned from The Forum the basics of what GGG explained.
What I did and do is as follows:
Replace all batteries in my MTH PS1 and PS2 locomotives with BCRs;
When I start up MTH locomotives, I power up to 10 volts and remain at that level of power for 1 minute;
Then I lower the voltage to 9 volts for a few seconds;
Then I put the locomotive in forward mode and it runs flawlessly, every time.
