hello there,i bought a mth sd70ace and ran it on dc power,cool but verry limited.so i purchased a dcs wireless unit.my question is the ho loco only runs on dc power according to owners manual,the TIU is powered by an ac brick,are the fixed ports 1&2 on the TIU dc outputs,dose the TIU convert the ac input to dc output?the owners manual for the dcs says they are for command mode but the manual seems to be written for o&g scales,no mention of ho and it will be an expensive test to see if it will work.any help would be great,thanks
hey i found the answer,if anyone else buys a dcs wireless the TIU can be powered by either AC or DC depending on what you run.IT DOSE NOT CONVERT VOLTAGE. ho mth engines should be run on DC voltage through the TIU only.AC for O scale.hope this helps someone else.
Hi tycobandit,
Glad you found your answer. You are correct, the DCS Track Interface Unit (TIU) can be run on either AC or DC. The TIU does not rectify AC into DC. What ever you put in is what you'll get out. Unlike DCC, DCS overlays its digital signal on top of the track current. That allows you to use almost any power supply.
MTH also makes a small console version of DCS called the DCS Commander. The Commander was built with the HO market in mind. Like the regular DCS set you can power the Commander with either AC or DC. Unlike regular DCS, the Commander does contain a rectifier and only outputs DC.
There's a third flavor of DCS that MTH brought out last year called the DCS Remote Commander. The DCSRC runs on either AC or DC and does not rectify current. The DCSRC is an entry level IR remote that gives limited access to the command features. MTH now includes a DCSRC in starter sets that come equipped with Protosound 3.
Hope that helps.
Dave