Can't Program Lionel ZW - C !! - Any advice?

Dennis,  You have probably already checked these items, but worth mentioning anyway.   With my ZW-C, set up it wasn't always "seeing" the Legacy Signal, so I tapped a wire off the AC common and it's laying alongside my ZW-C on the shelf where it's mounted.   I am 99% sure, that was one of Mike's suggestions in the video.

The other item, is over the years that I have owned this ZW-C,  and have experienced some "intermittent control issues".    I finally took the advice of several folks here on the forum,  and completely separated the 120VAC power for the ZW-C, and my Legacy and or TMCC bases.

Now I have an extension cord (3 prong grounded), running to a completely different duplex outlet at the other end of my basment for the Legacy Base.  This way I know for sure they aren't even on the same circuit breaker.

Again, I assume you know this, but in my case the Legacy base has to be Powered up, before I power up the ZW-C.  I found this out the hard way one day recently, when I powered up the ZW-C, before the Legacy, and several locomotives took off running full speed.   

The only other item that I am thinking is to ensure that your "common" rails are all tied together going to this 10 foot spur.   Isolating the common seems like it would cause a problem.   

Some further detail,  when I attempt to program the ZW-C, the red and green lights do not flash when I press the program button.  So pressing track 1 and 'select' has no effect.  When I attempt to dial up voltage on track 1 - nothing, but on tracks 2-4, the red light on the ZW-C lights up and seems to recognize the remote.  But nothing on track 1 (channel A, where the PH135 is plugged in)

Chris,

This is a second, separate, Legacy command base (on a different channel) going to this section of track.  That is why I isolated the common rails as well as the hot.  I wanted this to be completely separate from the remainder of the layout, including the other Legacy base.  It was my understanding that you could have two Legacy bases as long they are not on the same channel.

I will try separating the power source, as they are plugged into the same outlet.

@dennish posted:

Some further detail,  when I attempt to program the ZW-C, the red and green lights do not flash when I press the program button.  So pressing track 1 and 'select' has no effect.  When I attempt to dial up voltage on track 1 - nothing, but on tracks 2-4, the red light on the ZW-C lights up and seems to recognize the remote.  But nothing on track 1 (channel A, where the PH135 is plugged in)

Dennis,

Off the top of my head I believe that you have to enter "01" instead of just "1".

Mike

There was an updated chip for the ZW-C that fixed some issues when Legacy came out. Just a thought to check if your Z is updated…and if your problems were why the update.

Here is my hook-up description:  The Legacy command base is plugged in to power source.  The ZW-C is plugged in to the PH135, which is pugged in.  I have a wire connected to the U-post of the Legacy base, but not the ZW-C or the outer rail of any track.  The ZW-C is not connected to any track at this point.  This matches what I saw Mike do in the product video.  I turn on the Legacy base, then the ZW-C.  I press the the program button on the back of the ZW-C.  The green and red lights alternate lighting in a consistently inconsistent pattern, but nothing changes in the light pattern when I attempt to to press Track 1, 'select'.

Does this sound like the correct set up and procedure?  I am really stumped here!

Dennis

Chuck,

I did read about that.  It just seems like a tremendous stroke of bad luck to have both properly-working transformers go bad in a 6-month period of storage.  But maybe, they did -  I don't know .  This is just so frustrating

Thanks to everybody who has chimed in - keep the suggestions coming.  I'll try anything at this point!

Dennis

@dennish posted:

….. “ I have a wire connected to the U-post of the Legacy base, but not the ZW-C or the outer rail of any track.  The ZW-C is not connected to any track at this point….”

Dennis

I may be misunderstanding this statement, but the U-post on the Legacy base must be connected to any Common post on the back of the ZW-C…..according to page 9 in the ZW-C manual.

Gary

In Mike's video, he connects it to the outer rail of the track.  I have tried it in both places to no avail!