peculiarity with sc-2

It sounds like you have a broken wire inside the insulation or a temperamental connection at the SC-2.

Yeah, heck! I thought I had figured out what was going on. Instead I have switch two working fine but 3 and 4 will only click the relays. Plus if I get more than 3 or 4 feet away from the sc-2 #2 it won't even throw. Clearly I have no comprehension as to what is going on. This is even a new sc-2 since the folks at lionel advised that they thought my other sc-2 might be bad so I bought a new one!

How far is the SC-2 from the Command Base?

Also, the DZ switch machines may not be drawing enough current to power the SC-2, you may need to use a separate power source if there is not enough current and voltage bleed from the switch connected to the SC-2 SW1 connector.

That sounds interesting. I have an MRC dual power transformer and am running the switches off of 1/2 of the transformer and my track off of the other half. That should give me the full 15A available to run switches and count as a separate transformer.  Is that a wrong assumption?

So let me ask you another question... Watching the video on the Lionel website they connect the wall-wart and a switch to location 3. I did that connection and things worked for the single switch but not for multiple switches connected. In the multiple case I am running with no switch in space 1. The manual, I believe, actually tells you not to use the wall-wart to run switches, but they do it on the video and there are other examples on the web that use the wall-wart for sc-2 power. At any rate if I plug a switch into socket 1 with no power connected should the green LED on the sc-2 light up? I did try that but the LED did not light and nothing activated. And... what the heck happens if you use socket 1 with power applied? Does the thing die or does socket 1 just not work?

My SC-2s were very iffy until I powered them with A-U power and made sure the U lead was common with the outside rail which is connected to the U output on the Legacy base.

I also cut the trace to the U terminal on the first switch position since my Fastrack cannot power the SC-2 and I wanted to use all 6 positions for switches. I also have a ground wire running above the SC-2s which is the third prong ground on the plug for the Base (actually I used pin #5 on the base DB-9 connector).

Geez... I'll be glad when my learning curve is closer to the top than the bottom!

OK. On my transformer I have the two variable and one constant power source's grounds all tied together. Any reason that my set-up with the other variable set to 16V would not work instead of the accessory spot at 14V? Or should I dig out my old CW-80 and use a separate transformer altogether? 2nd dumb question... How does the accessory power connect to the sc-2? If the power connection on the bottom left has the cut ground it seems like the power has to come from the wall-wart? Or are you saying that the switches are tied to the A port and the sc-2 to the U? That is actually what I have with my current set-up.

WRT the ground wire... I have some dz-2500s running through a 2001 off of the base db9. Since that is a straight through I can still access the pin location that you describe. I assume that the reason for the ground is to give a short transmission path for the wireless signal to the sc-2. Can it be jacketed wire or do I need some bare solid copper?

Thanks for the comments and questions!

I run my SC-2s on a CW80 along with a number of Fastrack switches. And I connect the U terminal of the CW80 to the U terminal of the track and the Legacy base output. The trace from the U terminal on the SC-2 is connected to the first switch. Cutting that allows you to use the first position for Fastrack switches and you can still power the SC-2 thru the A-U power connection on it.

It makes no difference if the AC ground pin wire (also DB9 pin #5) is insulated or not. I use insulated wire which is more convenient around all the power connections it comes near.

Cjack - Let me see if I have this correctly in my brain... obviously for Legacy to work all of the grounds have to connect to the base common. Connect power and ground  to the two connectors on the bottom left next to station 2. Question...how does the ground for the sc-2 work if you cut the trace... or is that ground just a branch? And why is there a ground going to station 1 since the ground comes to the relays from the common?

Its just a branch to get power from the first switch. The old tubular switches could supply it, but the new Fastrack cannot. So you have to cut the trace to be able to use a Fastrack switch there...and then you have to supply power to the A and U terminals.