Phasing MTH Z1000 Bricks

The connection to the TIU is a coaxial plug. The outside of it is the "black" and the center of it is the "red". You can hope to rely on the fact that MTH made them, the transformer bricks, all the same as far as phasing.

CJACK,

if I understand you correctly, in what your saying is, that the MTH bricks ( Z1000, and Z 500/750 ) since they are all made by MTH and are all alike are automatically in phase because of the way there made.

Thanks

KIKEEHN

Should be, although Lionel made some that were not once. They fixed that and offered phase flipper sockets for the ones that needed them. I have to think it's a big deal and MTH bricks are phased alike by design.

Chuck,

Thanks again for the info. As an old HO DC guy who has been out of the hobby for 10 years its a whole new learning curve. I've also included an attachment showing my layout as planned. 

Briefly outer loop and its sidings is Channel 1 and inner loop and its sidings is channel 2. 

If you want, Any suggestions electrical or other wise are greatly appreciated.

Thanks again in advance

KIKEEHN

I'll just throw it out there that you can't assume that all Z500/750/1000 will be correctly phased.  The z1000 I bought for the sole purpose of dissecting turned out to be wired backwards form "standard", leading me to assume some things about these transformers that turned out not to be the norm.  I'd always check them just to be sure.  

JGL

JohnGaltLine posted:

I'll just throw it out there that you can't assume that all Z500/750/1000 will be correctly phased.  The z1000 I bought for the sole purpose of dissecting turned out to be wired backwards form "standard", leading me to assume some things about these transformers that turned out not to be the norm.  I'd always check them just to be sure.  

JGL

Yes, always do the lightbulb test across two bricks connected to the same power strip.  As JGL says, even MTH can make a mistake and has. The process is below, documented by Lionel.

https://lionelllc.wordpress.co...hasing-transformers/

I take it that the brick has two outputs that have binding posts and one cord with a coaxial connector on it. And there is no common binding post.

The easiest phasing test would be to connect a lightbulb between say the 14 vac on one and the 14 vac on the second brick and if the light stays very dim or off, then the bricks are phased. If the bulb gets really bright, the bricks are not phased and you have to turn one of the plugs around on the line cord that plugs into the wall. Use any 14 to 18 volt train bulb.

Everyone,

Thanks for the advise and suggestions. I like the light bulb suggestion of CJACK's. 

How about connecting each of the MTH Z's to one of MTH's Terminal blocks, plug both the Pos and neg connections into the blocks and then running a black wire to each Black Terminal on the Terminal Block/s just like you would do for a transformer that has positive and negative terminals. The reason I mention this is because the Z-500/750 does not have a 14volt Acc. Terminal. 

I'd still like to hear from Barry  Broskowitz or Jim Barrett on this matter, for a more diffinitive answer.

Again Thanks for all the help

Kerry

Question to all.... Is the outside of Z-1000  500  750   power  jack positive or negative?.... I know  the  pin on the tiu's aux power jack is common to the black tiu terminals which leads me to think the outside is actually positive.

yep  it's opposite of what I always thought with dc wall adaptors.

If that's the case you could jam a wire in the each  jacks  hole which would connect both  commons  together.  Now  measure  the outsides of the jacks with a volt meter.. there should be  little or no  voltage.  If out of phase the voltage would  be around 40 volts.

Or hook up a tiu  using fixed 1 &2  , connect the commons( Fixed1 & 2blacktogether)   measure voltage hot to hot. You would want to see little or no voltage if in phase. 40 volts if not in phase..  Maybe best to phase them before hooking up the tiu.   .

To follow up on GREGG's post- The outside of the barrel jack is hot- that is why you use the adapter cable MTH 50-1017 to provide marked red and black outputs from the track power without cutting the barrel off.

The transformers have a polarized plug to a 120v receptacle, so the transformers will be phase.

The ACC outputs are marked, so you can phase 14v output easily.