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When using legacy & DCS With A zw-l I have a question.

Before the ZW-L my legacy base was wired to the DCS TIU outputs. Power into the TIU was supplied by an MTH Z-4000.

Now enter the ZW-L, the ZW-L need signal from the legacy base and will then pass that signal out of its outputs to your track.

If you are using DCS you would then be passing that signal into the input side of the TIU. I'm not sure if the TIU will pass that signal to the output side?

So currently off if the legacy I have split the signal wire with one side going to the ZW-L and the other side going to the output terminals of the TIU.

Is this the correct way to wire a ZW-L, legacy base and DCS TIU?

__Gromet
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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.

Last edited by Former Member
Gregg, That's an interesting thought. I will try this later today. You can address the 4 throttles as with engines or tracks. So if I program a throttle as. An engine, I should theoretically have some control over it via my DCS remote since it is hooked to my legacy base. If I enter the engine I'd into DCS I would imagine I would have some although possible limited control. I will report back with my findings.
Originally Posted by Barry Broskowitz:

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)

Gregg, that works! If you have the ZW-L I 1-CH mode. You can address the A throttle/engine you assign on the DCS remote and it controls all 4 throttles as I'd they were one. So if you dial up the throttle all four throttles increase voltage the same. Nice... So Barry, 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. __Gromet

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.

It is still easy to do. If you want to control an individual throttle on the DCS remote you would just choose whichever of the four TMCC engines you have pre-programmed into your remote. If you want to control all four simultaneously there is a small switch on the ZW-L that you just press and you are In one channel mode. Just dial up throttle 1 on your DCS remote and you are controlling all 4.

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.

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