MTH Z4000 BAD Serial Numbers

I don’t own a Z4000 but I’ve never heard of problems. They appear to be bulletproof. A little more info on the lag time from the ZW may result in an answer saving you some money instead of a new purchase.

romiller49 posted:

I don’t own a Z4000 but I’ve never heard of problems. They appear to be bulletproof. A little more info on the lag time from the ZW may result in an answer saving you some money instead of a new purchase.

As you might know, the MTH ProtoSound engines require a series of horn and bell sounds with 2 seconds between each sound.  

The Lionel Sound Activation button lags.  For example: I need two bell sounds followed by two whistle sounds for a certain command.  When I press the Lionel Sound activation Button the bell does not immediately ring.  I have to hold the button down for a couple of seconds before the bell begins to ring continuously.  Then I have to hold the button down again for about two seconds to stop the bell from ringing.  This makes it impossible to follow the directions for various engine commands. The whistle slider on the ZW isn't exactly user friendly for this purpose as well.

I'm assuming that when you press the bell or whistle buttons on a Z4000 they will immediately start and stop sounding. 

Hopefully someone will chime in for you. 

Lionel's 6-5906 Bell Button does not have any sort of a lag. Power gets routed through the barrel diodes contained therein immediately with the button push.

What DOES have a lag, however, is the detection for the bell's DC offset on the receiving end. That delay is built into most Lionel (and I'm guessing other makers as well) that use the DC offset method to trigger a bell.

In short, there's nothing you can do about it.

TRW

Mine are the original runs and have been in operation for over 16 years.    Joe

I have heard no such thing about the MTH Z4000. I own 2 of them and they are the best transformer I’ve used. 

The very very early Z4000's wouldnt return the voltage to 0   The serial number on the z4000 starts with the date it was produced so stay away from anything with a 1990's serial   Also you can tell when you turn it on   A 4000 will be displayed on the top and an 0123 will be displayed on the bottom    The newer ones will have 0124 on the bottom  That is the firmware version in the transformer   Only get ones with an 0124  .  We have 19 Z4000's at the club and they are bulletproof.  No worries 

the very early ones that start with serial number 039 had a slight leakage voltage but ran ok but might show a volt or so but worked fine otherwise this issue was corrected with a upgrade repair but not a major issue, the later version  they came up with serial number like 104 which corrected the small voltage leakage etc serial number. occasionally the potentiometer on the throttles go bad but  not very often. I have had very little problems with mine. I would not be afraid to purchase a new z4000 in IMHO!

PaperTRW posted:

Lionel's 6-5906 Bell Button does not have any sort of a lag. Power gets routed through the barrel diodes contained therein immediately with the button push.

What DOES have a lag, however, is the detection for the bell's DC offset on the receiving end. That delay is built into most Lionel (and I'm guessing other makers as well) that use the DC offset method to trigger a bell.

In short, there's nothing you can do about it.

TRW

That being said, shouldn't a z4000 or any other transformer with built-in bell/whistle buttons alleviate that problem?

Ponz

PaperTRW posted:

Lionel's 6-5906 Bell Button does not have any sort of a lag. Power gets routed through the barrel diodes contained therein immediately with the button push.

What DOES have a lag, however, is the detection for the bell's DC offset on the receiving end. That delay is built into most Lionel (and I'm guessing other makers as well) that use the DC offset method to trigger a bell.

In short, there's nothing you can do about it.

TRW

That is sad news.

Ponz

The bell does not have to start ringing. Only a quick shot of DC is what the processor board is looking for. If you are using a 5906, just a quick tap should work. As far as the ZW whistle control, just move the lever half way quickly.

Chuck Sartor posted:

The bell does not have to start ringing. Only a quick shot of DC is what the processor boaed is looking for. If you are using a 5906, just a quick tap should work. As far as the ZW whistle control, just move the lever half way quickly.

I'll try it - this is good to know!.  I hope it works!

Ponz