Remote Commander output voltage questions

The power signal flows thru from center-pin of the input jack to the red banana, and from the outer-sleeve of the input jack to the black banana.  Considering the unit works with AC, it shouldn't matter on polarity but I looked at the DC power-supply I got with my HO DCSRC and it "+" on the center-pin (i.e., the red banana output).

As for the DCS signal corruption, considering that the DCSRC works with AC voltage, I do not think the introduction of a bridge will be a problem.  Obviously if the bridge is between the DCSRC and the track, don't put a capacitor after the bridge to smooth out the DC as that will surely kill the DCS signal.  I don't think there'd be a difference if you put the bridge before or after but note that if you put it before you might use a male-female pair of coax-to-screw-terminal adapters so you don't have to cut the power cord.  These run less than $1 for the pair on eBay free shipping - search "DC power adapter male female". 

The lock-on/bulb is a your-mileage-may-vary.  Starter-sets that come with the DCSRC are simple/small layouts so I don't think fine-tuning the signal path provides much benefit... not to mention it's unclear how you'd make practical measurements without the signal-quality test functions in the full-blown DCS TIU system.

As for measurement, the basic idea is not to introduce capacitance across the wires (V meter) or inductance in series with the wires (A meter).  Either attenuates the high-frequency DCS signal.  I'd think that an "analog" moving-coil A meter would introduce more series inductance than a "digital" resistive sensing A meter.  If the analog A meter proves to be a problem, I'd put it before the input to the DCSRC.  Yes, this would then include the current used by the DCSRC itself but should be trivial compared to what the train draws when active.

Stan,

  Thank you for your detailed reply, which is very much appreciated.  I didn't think the polarity would make a difference, but I wasn't sure, especially with MTH color-coding the output wiring.

  My primary plan is to just use the system as is, feeding a roller test stand.  However I thought it might be interesting to then experiment with an MTH locomotive in DCS mode on my 2 rail DC layout [ just for the uncoupling feature ] , substituting the IR receiver as a "cab";   I did not want to use AC in case of inadvertant "block bridging", and all the V / A meters are DC.

   However, all experimenting is at a standstill [ literally ! ] right now as my lone MTH loco just sits there, dark, in DCS -- I'm guessing it might need the infamous factory reset -- or perhaps the new Commander is defective.....

Thanks again, Stan.

With best regards, SZ