If you're going the Roco route to upgrade then watch out a little - the z21 is not the same as the Z21 (note Capitalisation). The latter unit has the connectivity to wi-fi, etc, but is much more expensive. It genuinely is worth considering going the Lenz route; there is no 'fiddling' you just plug the two together, but if you go for the Z21 I will be very interested to know what you make of it.
Steph
Steph, I didn't know there were two z/Z21's but it'd be the expensive one I'd aim for, not getting caught again with limited options from half way houses. Both the Lenz and Z21 are viable options, I don't really like the look of the Lenz controllers if I'm honest, but that's my personal preference based purely on my own visual ego, so it's nice to know the MultiMaus will/should plug and play. It's almost as cost effective to get a whole set up than it is to try and get the LZV100 terminal on it's own by the look of things.
I played some more earlier and I think your right on the power side, when I try to program the CV's on the QSi I can hear a faint clicking coming from the speaker, almost like a power cut sort of thing.
I played again with the F11 and F12 functions using your tips above, still a no go so decided to dig a little further, F11 is front number boards on and off, the main lights work and brighten with direction of travel and dim when stationary, but, there's no actual distinct LED for the front number boards (it's all striped down now so easy to see the light circuit boards), just a single headlight one.
Thus F11 may be working but no LED to give a visual result. In addition, F11 is not available with Ditch or Mars operating. The MP15 does not have either Mars or Ditch lights....but....the cab console light is plugged into the Ditch light socket on the MoBo by Atlas. It can't go anywhere else as it has a unique plug that only fits that socket. So, F11 may not work because there's no LED to light and the cab console light is being used instead of or as a Ditch or Mars light function.
Which brings us neatly to F12, cab console light, this does not work so digging a bit deeper it looks like a simple lamp encased in the drivers console, unplugging it and applying pure DC 12v should give something, it does, the merest hint of a glimmer. There's a bridge rectifier on the power side of things, converting 18V AC to 17V DC so I'm guessing the MoBo's main power bus works off 17V DC, the LEDs will need a much lower supply, but a simple filament lamp will not, a 12V lamp will be too small so I'm guessing a 20V is installed, which explains why it's so dim on just 12V DC. either way it should at least glow gently with F12, it does not...hmmpphh.
I've not read the QSi tome in detail but it wouldn't surprise me if these two function might need enabling with a CV change, though I would expect them to work on factory default settings if I'm honest.
Richard, I didn't know you could test run trains with the SPROGG set up, that's an interesting snippet of info
SPROGG 3 it is then
