Wiring legacy base & DCS with ZW-L

That's interesting.

In the past I've been advised that the TMCC and Legacy signals are best not sent through the TIU. however, I don't have any real specifics as to what happens if they are.

Further, the effects may be different depending upon which signal one is passing through the TIU.

My suggestion is for you to try it and let the rest of us know.  

We are using a ZW-C and have the Legacy base connected to 1 of the Common Post of the ZW-C. Those out puts are connected to our TIU, obviously on the input side. While testing our loops yestreday with DCS and signal strength, we were only getting 4's and 5's. However, all TMCC/Legacy functions have been working properly from the beginning of our testing with the Legacy Base wire connected this way, running through the TIU.

We are using an older TIU (not the L version), and have NOT connected the light bulbs to the ditributions blocks yet. We wanted to test it as is, to get a base signal reading before adding any modificaions.

Going to add a light bulb to each channel on the output side and see what happens to the signal quality.

Will then move the light bulb to the distribution block to see if there is a difference in the signal quality, whether its on the TIU output or the distribution itself.

If neither one of those options with the light bulb work, we'll move the Legacy Base wire to the outputs of the TIU and retest signal quality.

Last option, which we will probably do anyway, is swap out the older version TIU to the new version L and remove the light bulbs. Just move the Legacy wire back to the ZW common post and test signal, then move the Legacy wire back to the TIU outputs and test signal.

We need 2 TIU's anyway, so we'll use the newer L version as the primary and the older version for the engine tracks and sidings.

Thats exactly how we have our layout setup. My only question to you is what kind of signal quality are you getting with your DCS remote now?

DCS is running perfectly.

It would be good to know what is the actual DCS signal strength.

Why can't the "U" connection from  the legacy base go directly to an outside rail and also the NEW ZW L??  Maybe it won't make a difference  as the blacks on the tiu outputs are straight through connections anyway.

I wonder if the dcs remote can talk to the new ZW by addressing it as an engine, Can the cab-1 talk to it or only the cab-2. Anyone?

You don't address the ZW as an engine, you address it as "TR" 1-4.

You connect the Legacy base to the ZW so that when it powers up, it knows it's in Command Mode. Most likely your base is setting right there next to your ZW, so it's easy to hook the wire up to it anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN5S7X6y9sM

take a look at about 12/13 minutes

YES! If you assign the throttles as engines on the legacy remote you can control them via the DCS remote by adding the 4 engines as TMCC engines. Throttle control, direction, bell, whistle, Etc.

If you "lashup" the 4 engines as a "Train", can you adjust all 4 throttles as one throttle?

Thanks Gromet, Appreciate your time testing.

I could not get a lash up of the throttles the work.

What would the use of the 4 throttles in a lashup be?

It would allow you to adjust the voltage of the entire layout, similar to the way that DCS can do that with any number of Z4000's that each have attached a Z4000 Remote Commander Receiver.

I think I see what you're getting at now, I'd have to watch the video again but won't this thing allow all 4 outputs to operate as one via a switch on the transformer? If more than one transformer , why couldn't you program them all with the same engine number(s)

Anyway , I like this thing with amp & volt meters, I'm guessing the power is internal or does it also  need 4 bricks? wonder what it costs?(roughly)

the answer is yea you can get the ZW-L to act like a Z-4000 with the command controller in that you can control all four throttles simultaneously via either a Legacy remote or a DCS remote

That's good, however, a "handle lashup" would have been even better. It would have provided the ability to address either 1 handle, or any combination of handles as  a group, without having to reprogram the handle's TMCC engine numbers.

My questions stem from the way I have my layout built, with all of the transformers (3 Z400s and 2 PW ZWs) and DCS electronics (3 TIUs and 10 AIUs) under the layout and out of the way.

The Z4000s each have a Z4000 Remote Commander Receiver attached. This allows me to set up DCS Z4K Tracks, of which I have 6, one for each transformer handle. Each Z4K Track allows "touchless" control of a single Z4000 handle, 6 in all.

From the DCS Remote, I can adjust the voltage of each of the 6 handles independently or as a group, without ever going near the transformer.

From what I understand, to do this using the ZW-L, I would have to flip a switch on the ZWL between single throttle operation mode and mutiple throttle operation.