RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion
Frog Juicers compatible with RailPro?
Tom:
Joel,
Got it, with one exception: I was unaware that the PWR-56 is DC since Ring is pretty emphatic that their modules should not to be used with a power pack set to full throttle.
Based on your description and picture of the SmartFrog, what do you think about powering my Tam Valley Hex Frog Juicer with a separate DCC power supply and then running the single wires to the frogs? It seems like the Frog Juicer might line up the polarity of the frog with whatever it detects. If that is something that would work the next question is: is there a very inexpensive DCC power supply out there somewhere?
Tom
JJ Crooke:
The PWR-56 is not your conventional DC power pack where you increase/decrease the throttle to regulate the current/speed of a DC engine. The PWR-56 regulates the power to provide a steady current output. I'm no expert when it comes to this so others may chime in to give you a better explanation.
You could definitely power your Tam Valley Hex Frog Juicer with a separate DCC power supply but the rest of your layout would also need to be powered by DCC and not DC (like the PWR-56). Tam Valley Frog Juicer will only detect DCC current. DC current will not damage the Frog Juicer (as per their website and I've tried it) but will simply pass-through the juicer and it will not detect a DC short (will not change the polarity). RailPro decoders (like the LM-3S) do support both DC or DCC power but I'm pretty sure that you can't mix both. Again, I'm not an expert on the subject so please correct me if I'm wrong.
G8B4Life:
--- Quote from: Tom on July 20, 2018, 09:00:02 AM ---...since Ring is pretty emphatic that their modules should not to be used with a power pack set to full throttle.
--- End quote ---
What Ring means is that you should not use a variable voltage power pack, ie typical train set type of controller as the power source. These can easily output more than the safe voltage than what the LM can take because the voltage is unregulated. The PWR-56 is regulated so it's outputting 14.2v no matter what (within reason). You can even use other regulated power supplies instead of the PWR-56, as long as they are regulated and output between the minimum and maximum voltage of RailPro.
--- Quote ---Based on your description and picture of the SmartFrog, what do you think about powering my Tam Valley Hex Frog Juicer with a separate DCC power supply and then running the single wires to the frogs? It seems like the Frog Juicer might line up the polarity of the frog with whatever it detects. If that is something that would work the next question is: is there a very inexpensive DCC power supply out there somewhere?
--- End quote ---
I think I get what your suggesting but I'm not 100% sure so I'll try to cover all bases. To use the Tam Valley frog juicers without the shutdown problems described previously you'll have to have DCC as the track power, not just the frog. If you tried to have the track DC (as you do currently) and the frog DCC then you'd likely get all sorts of problems when a locomotive runs though the frog as the frog would be alternating between +/- while the closure rails would be a constant + or 0v.
Now, as far as I know DCC and "inexpensive" are words that don't belong in the same sentence. For DCC what you'll need along with the power supply is something to generate the DCC waveform to the track. This something according to my current knowledge of what's out there in the world would be a proper standalone DCC command station (not cheap). If one was smart with electronics (which I am not) it might be possible to design and build a basic DCC waveform generator which should be quite cheap to do but I have never seen one.
- Tim
JJ Crooke:
Yep... what Tim said. ;D
Alan:
Hey Bill,
This discussion sparks a suggestion for a new PDC product - DC to emulated DCC track power converter. There is a simple common circuit called a relaxation oscillator which does exactly that. 24 volts DC in = 12 volts AC square wave out. Add a couple transistors on the output to get whatever current output desired. Presto, PDC has a low cost accessory for people wanting to run on DCC power without having a DCC system!
The basic circuit:
Read all about them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relaxation_oscillator
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