Keep Alive® Decoder Compatibility
TCS Keep Alive® (KA) devices are designed to operate with all TCS (or any other Keep Alive® ready) decoders. Decoders with a “-KA” suffix include an extra Blue wire and a Black w/ White Stripe wire for hardwiring the KA to the decoder. Decoders with a “-KAC” suffix have a 2-Pin Connector for attaching the KA(x)-C. WAUX-KA(x) and KA(x)-C devices are not compatible with non-TCS decoder plug-in Keep Alive® interfaces.
Not all DCC decoders are Keep Alive® ready. TCS decoders use software to enable and disable KeepAlive, so if your decoder does not support Keep Alive®, it may not work. Keep Alive® supported code for TCS decoders was implemented fully by November 2012. If the date code in your decoder is before this date, Keep Alive® may never enable. CV's 250, 251, and 252 read as the month, day, and year of manufacturing.
If you would like to attach a Keep Alive® unit to a non-TCS decoder, you need to connect the wires across the output of the bridge rectifier on the decoder. You will need to consult your decoder manufacturer for a schematic or wiring diagram.