I think some clarification on decoder wiring is in order here. The yellow wire is not common, it is the switched ground for the rear light. The white wire is the switched ground for the front light. The blue wire is not switched and it is the common positive. Double check your CV programming.
49 = 0 50 = 16 I also noticed that with 28 speed steps I have a big jump in running speed between steps 10 and 11. cv2=4 cv5=72 and cv6=36 cv3=001 cv4=001 cv56 =0 and CV57 =0 cv29 = 49 1+16+32 CV15=0 CV16=1. We will have another go at this to-morrow. cheerz Garth
Garth, Reset all the CV's. Every Z-2 I installed had no CV changes at all. The lights are directional - automatically. All I did was change the address to my engine number. "Try it - You'll like it!" (Mikey does)
I got 3 more Z2 in yesterday and did new install works fine. The original one still does not work. But all four have the same anomaly if I fill in the speed table instead of using the default one I get a jump between either speed step 10 and 11 or speed step 11 and 12. Dump the speed table and it goes away. I tried a range of values and they all produced the same results. I installed 3 Z2 today and all work fine on default settings but my SD75 reaches max speed at speed step 18 so wanted to bring the voltage down and that is when I found the jump problem. CV2=2 CV5=180 CV6=90 then tried CV2=2 CV5=120 CV6=60 still jumps between 10 and 11. ditch the table and return to default one and it is fine again. Have 6 MZA-4's and no problem with speed table in any of them. cheerz Garth
That is strange. I mod my CV5 and 6 to trim down the max speed but have never seen that jump. Lets see now. You can't be in the 'obsolete' 14 Speed step 'cause you said SS 18 so you must be running 28 SS mode. OK. Wonder if there is some other setting in you Cab/DCC. Other locos run OK ? Can you wire one temporary to the track and a motor (or at least a incandescant bulb) and try the same ??? I can see it maybe slowing down above a speed step if BEMF gives up at lower speeds or something like that. We'll be running more this weekend .
Hi Svein-Martin, I am thinking of jumping into DCC also, with a NCE Power Cab. However I am still reluctant to start with DCC, since I am worried that my GP motors might overheat because I use my locomotives 100% for switching at low speed. Please share your expieriences with the NCE Power Cab at 230V 50Hz. ...Last time I was in the USA I just got myself a US to EU adapter plug, to be prepaired.
NCE Power Cab for 220V I have not used it so much yet, but I bought a cheap powersupply I could set the voltage to 9V on and also change the plug, from Claes Ohlsson. This type, and I guess you can have similar type in Holland: http://www.clasohlson.co.uk/link/m3/Product,Product.aspx?artnr=18-2113 (We have a local shop where I live in Norway) I could also have used the power supply in the box, with a plug converter, because the powersupply will work for 110-240Volt, but then the output voltage would have been to high for Z-scale, so with this cheap £10 power supply, giving 9V/0.5A, it fit my needs. So far I have only testet 2 lok on a 60 cm long track, but it looks to work ok.
Frank, Plug it in and run it like everyone else. You'll be fine. Remember, DCC is very high frequency pulses, not low frequency like classic DC power supplies. The motors will crawl wit MUCH greater efficiency, thus less heat. .
Hi folks! I have some issues with my tcs SD70 installation... It sometimes just stops and then it tries to start again and again, but it seems like the motor restarts about one sec after it started again. It just stands there doing this start-attempt thing over and over again! The headlight is on so i know that it is not poor electrical pickups that is the problem. Also the rear light does not work, when i switch to reverse no lights appear. I sucpect that a broken LED is the problem but i wanted to mention it in case it actually may be an indication of a faulty installation.. I followed this instruction manual : http://www.americanzline.com/html/tcs_z2_dcc.html I use NCE power cab as my DCC-system, works like a charm with my mtl trains! My SD70 is from the first AZL release, i know that this is poor trains and that they run weeeerrrryyyy slooooowww, but that should not affect it's dcc performance? I also want to add something negative about AZL.. This is the secound AZL train i bought. My first was the GP-7 that had/ has huge power-pickup problems.. I have actually NEVER ran this train for more than a fiew metres before i gave it up and packed it down in my drawer of no return. I expected that the SD70 would run better? I WAS WRONG! First of all, it only had power-pickup on one truck, due to poor installation on the other truck. ALL the wheels where so out of gauge that the train did not have traction to pull 3!! I repeat 3!!!! 40'' boxcars! Not to mention all the shortage it made on MTL turnouts! It would actually have been easyer to buy this ¤¤¤¤ as a kit and assembled it myself! Too bad they make so pretty trains :-(
First question did you install the decoder according to the instructions with the engine or did you use the revised instructions. The action of repeated starting and shutting down indicates there is a short circuit somewhere in the set up. http://www.americanzline.com/html/tcs_z2_dcc.html here is the correct wiring for this decoder.
I dont know if this is the case with your engine, but I had a Uhlebrock that would shut down if you overheat the motor.
Assuming you wired it correctly, you said you were using a Power Cab and the wheel gauge was wrong. If there was a short, the Power Cab could shut down but that is usually about 3 seconds to recover. Assuming it is wired correctly, there is no way that coreless motor can draw enough to shut down the decoder but the 1 second reset bothers me. Note: make sure the Accelerate and Decelerate CV's (CV3, CV4) are set to 0 and the Power Cab Momentum is at Zero so the motor does not slowly restart. Does sorta sound like a short though. Check the clearance with the metal motor connection strips. .
Do you have another SD-70 you can switch boards with? Then you can find out if it is the DC part (frame, wheel contacts and board) or the DCC part (the board or decoder)?
Henrik, if you want, I can take a look at it. Since we are living in the same town, you could meet me at work in downtown Drammen and I could have the engine a couple of days to try to figure out the problems, if you want. My SD-70 with the same decoder runs great.
Thanks all! I am sure i installed it correctly according to the link Garth provided. I do not have any other SD70's to compare it too, but my geeps runs just fine on the same track as the SD70 and when the train is in it's "right mood" it do run a couple laps before the problem occurs.. so i don't think it is a short either. My first toughts was that the engine was overheating, but it have never been hot to touch at all.. Svein: you got PM!
The loco runs good, after some contactproblems from the truck to the body, but the rear light is not working, so I guees the decoder output is in fault. No voltage at all, even after resetting the decoder to factory default. But the mainlight is working. Check out the test run: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmN_QALTVLY
I had the same problem with mine and finally gave up trying to figure it out and separated the headlights with resistors from the common ground on the board and connected the ground to a pad I created at each light and moved the white and yellow wires to pads at each light. Then it worked fine. Not sure why as in theory it should have 50% light with the connection suggested. cheerz Garth
Svein-Martin: All DCC decoder outputs are only able to 'sink current' (like closing a switch to common [ zero volts inside decoder] ). The outputs do not provide voltage. The Blue wire provides positive (+) DC volts from the decoder. This comes from the rectified AC track voltage. The LED's are normally connected between these two wires, with a resistor in series (the LED and Resistor are already on the AZL board so you just connect the wires). The possible confusing point is the Blue wire. No Blue wire connection is used in the AZL installs. One end of each LED is alread connect to the chassis through the metal mounting post. So, only the White and Yellow wires are connected. These must connect to the appropriate board edge hole (see their website: http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/Z_Scale/AZL/GP7/AZL_GP7_Z2-Decoder.php) Using an AC volt meter, see what voltage you read from the White or Yellow wire to the metal frame (opposite side from Yellow or White side). With the light off, there should be only a small voltage. With the light on, it should be about 10 volts (if I thought this out correctly. .
Jeff, I am aware of this, even if it is 26 years since I had a professional job using my 3 year electronic engineer education. Before that I worked for 7 years doing hardware maintenance on Honeywell mainframes, with a lot of wirewrapping and soldering of TTL-IC's and troubleshooting equipment with thousands of IC's. But that was in another milennium. And now my mobilphone has more power than this old monsters. I have other SD 70 with the same decoder working fine, so my statement was only to tell that the output was broken. With no voltage at all over the LED, no light. And I don't use the blue wire.
