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Not sure whether to post this in the TMCC/Legacy forum or here in the elerical forum. So here goes.

 

I have a 180 watt PowerHouse, checked at the molex plug and output is 18.2 volts.

 

Plug the 180PH into the ZW-C with jumpers removed from the back of the ZW and output at the A output is only 17.2 volts.

Checked the entire lower loop and the voltage is the same as the output of the A channel (17.2) as it should be...GREAT!

 

So where did that 1 volt between the output of the PH and the output of the ZW disappear to? and does it matter that I only have 17 volts at the track and not 18? 

 

 

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Although there is some voltage drop across the output transistors in the ZW, with no load that drop is quite small.

BUT the Lionel phase control power controllers such as the ZW and the Powermaster reserve a small portion of the AC sinewave for generating the DC offsets for the horn/whistle and bell.  The waveform pictures at the end of
http://www.trainfacts.com/trainfacts/?p=180 show how these offsets are created.

If you checked your voltage around the loop without any current load on the track, your voltage measurements around the loop are useless.  If there are any high-resistance points in the loop, there will only be a voltage drop when a current is flowing through that bad joint.  A typical voltmeter draws almost no current and therefore won't register any drop in a bad joint.

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