I have a Lionel ZW-C Transformer with 4 180 watt powerhouses.
I use it just to power accessories so I can have different voltages. It is not connected to the track and I do not use it with any TMCC controller or Legacy Controller.
I have been having an issue since the beginning where all my accessories would just shut down. Randomly. I kept thinking it was a short somewhere or the transformer was overloading. I have been chasing this for a long time.
So the other day I decided to finally dig into it to fix it. What I discovered is there was no short. The red light never was blinking on the ZW-C. Also, it was no where near close to being overloaded. I checked the amperage draw on each handle.
Now keep in mind, during all my time before this trying to troubleshoot I never touched the handles as they were set to the voltages I wanted for the accessories attached to that handles output.
But in my troubleshooting, I decided to eliminate each circuit (handle) one at a time and starting to turn them off.
When my hand touched the handle, the transformer shut down. So I would turn off the powerhouse on handle A, turn back on and everything would be on again. I discovered if I just hovered my hand over the top of the ZW-C, it would shut down. I did not have to physically even touch it, just have my hand close to it for it to shut down.
I tried this over and over and finally had a repeatable result. So this explains why it was so random! It was just me walking past or having my hand near the ZW-C that shut it down. I would have never guessed it in a million years But I knew my wiring was correct as I triple checked it, so now it makes sense.
I guessed it had something to do with the TMCC antenna.
So I resolved my issue by removing the top and unplugging the TMCC antenna from the main circuit board. Now it no longer shuts down when my hand or body comes close to it. So for my situation I am good ,because I don't use it for any TMCC functions.
My question is why was it doing that?
Is it a defective main board? What would make it think it should shut down the transformer when a body part comes near it?
Thanks
Sean
