> ....they will not work on DC with pulse. I also don't know what that means.
> Ben Trousdale
Some DC power packs have a switch for pulse power. When pulse power is turned
on, the output of the power pack is half-wave rectified DC. It looks like a
bumpy road on an oscilloscope. The purpose of pulse power is to encourage slow
smooth starts. It would not surprise me if pulse power qualifies as non-smooth
DC as far as Lionel is concerned.
Other power packs will make an extra effort to provide for slow smooth starts.
One way to do this is to superimpose voltage spikes over the
gradually-increasing DC. These spikes are larger at very low voltages and
gradually decrease and fade away as the DC voltage is increased. This type of
power pack would also be considered non-smooth and probably cause difficulties
with the Lionel SD70.
Older motors frequently did not exhibit slow smooth starts with pure DC. Thus,
the makers of power packs used pulse power and/or voltage spikes to help
overcome friction (aka "stiction") when first starting to move. Newer
expensive motors (like "coreless") do not have as much difficulty starting up
slowly and smoothly on plain DC.
I suspect the Lionel internal electronics gets confused when seeing non-smooth
DC and might interpret it as being DCC or Legacy or something else by accident.
Just a guesstimate, but a reasonable starting point for experimentation.
Good luck...Ed Loizeaux
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