Z-4000 - strange occurence

Paul,

You do not say how many light bulbs. 10? 20? 96?

Is it possible to split the load between both handles for testing?

All the load on the other handle and then split it half and half?

Doubt it is the switch, but you never know.

If you are drawing 8-9 amps for the lights, then you are at the limit of power for the transformer throttle. That figure seems very high for just lighting, and you must have a very high number of incandescent bulbs to draw that much current. You may need to convert over to LED lighting to lower your power requirements. You definitely need to split the load, and should hook some to the fixed 10 volt output. What bulbs are you using and their current rating, if known?

Larry

Paul,

  I have the same problem on our large modular layout. We use 4 Z-4000's to run the layout. One z-4000 for lights and accessories only. Use both variable sides for this, set at 15 volts. Only one side of transformer pulses. Does not matter which half of layout is on that side of transformer.

          Mel

I don't know how many bulbs...must be > 100 as there's 2 per floor. I'll try splitting the load between the two handles...

Off the subject a little, BUT it does refer to MTH Z4000. What are the Dimensions of the BASE?....Please??

The dimensions are on the MTH page for the transformer, lower right corner.

Larry

excuse me, you couldn't look it up?

dimensions

THANKS!!! 

I run light's off of one of my Z's and have the same thing, only on my left handle as Mel

Sounds like a (design?) problem?

Larry

You can try buying a 600 watt Variac,I run all of my lights off of it at 16 amps output,There are about 200 lites on it.The Variac is under the control panel.

Mikey

The key statement was 9 amps before you increased the voltage.  You are simply overloading the transformer, it's working as designed on an overload.

Let's assume you have 8 volts and 9 amps of current.  When you try to go to 10 volts, you'd have over 11 amps, assuming the resistance stays constant.  Now, the bulbs do increase in resistance a bit as they get brighter, but for sure at 10 volts you'd be drawing well in excess of 9 amps.  Design limit for each channel of the Z4000 is 10 amps.

for all of our lights and even some accessories we have up to 8 Malibu's

The actual measurements are:

Base is 11 7/8" X 8 3/4"

Overall 14 1/2" X 11"

Ron

Thanks again for the tips...my new strategy is to split the lighting load between two Z-4000s - one handle each will be for lighting - and one handle will be for a subway line and one for "Super-Streets" line. I'll need to call in my old Lionel 75 watt for the other "Streets" line. Hopefully this will work.

I never realized when kit-bashing these buildings that the wattages and amps would add up so much!

Now you know why I like LED lighting so much.