Running Issue w/ MTH BL2

I believe that there are issues when using a CW80 transformer with a PS1 engine.  Do you have a different transformer you could try it with?

Two issues. Why did you leave the white battery in the engine? Anytime I get an older engine, especially a PS1 or 5V PS2 I ALWAYS check the battery before running it. Toss that and get either a BCR or an EBL (from amazon) battery for it. Second, yes, PS1 engines don't like the CW80. 

Ron, I don’t have an MTH transformer. Only have a Lionel CW80 and a ZW besides a few other older Lionel’s that are packed away. All of my loco’s are either Lionel or MTH that I’ve converted to TMCC. I’ve stayed away from DCS control trying to keep it simple. So here I am. I’ve always liked the BL2 and came across this one so I figured why not? In conventional mode, I should at least be able to control motion, right?

Matt, I just received the loco yesterday. Honestly, I didn’t think to look at the battery for corrosion prior to running it because I’ve never had a battery issue before. I really don’t use MTH electronics in my collection other than a few conventional QSI units. I’ll look into sourcing a battery replacement. Which do you recommend? An EBL Li-Ion or NiMH. I’m assuming the charging circuit was built for an NiMH battery, correct?

Thanks for your help!

Dan

On next power-up, try your ZW. Protosound (1) units are known to reject the "shark-fin" AC waveform that CW-80's produce (electronic transformers chop out parts of the AC sine-wave to vary their output voltage). ZW's and other postwar transformers output "pure" sine wave AC, which was the predominant form of layout power when Protosound was developed.

---PCJ

@RailRide posted:

On next power-up, try your ZW. Protosound (1) units are known to reject the "shark-fin" AC waveform that CW-80's produce (electronic transformers chop out parts of the AC sine-wave to vary their output voltage). ZW's and other postwar transformers output "pure" sine wave AC, which was the predominant form of layout power when Protosound was developed.

---PCJ

I’ll give the ZW a try after I replace the battery. I’ve read about this before in other threads but wasn’t completely sure due to my lack of experience with MTH electronics. I’ve also read the “sine wave output thread” put together by other members which was very interesting. Funny thing is, my MTH SW-9 works fine with the CW80.

Thank you,

Dan

Get a new BCR (here)

I have a CW-80 on my bench and a KW on the layout. A couple of my MTH PS/ QSI locos don't run with the CW but run fine on my layout.

I'm a big BL-2 fan BTW. I have the WbB demo.

Bob