Rick in an interesting twist, I've had a long conversation with Jon Z. of Lionel fame about the DZ-2500 and the CSM2 boxes. Turns out the serial data out of the CSM2 causes some odd issue at times with the DZ-2500 and locks them all up. I dropped back to using the DZ-2001 data driver, and I've never had the problem since. The issue I experience was only on power-up, if they worked after powering up, all was well. However, if I powered up the layout and the the DZ-2500 were non-responsive, all of them were dead. A power cycle would normally cure it.
I have not gone back to revisit the issue, but I suspect if I delay the power-up of the DZ-2500's for a couple of seconds all will be well, just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Interesting thought about the 12VDC power, I am still using AC.
