Other Power Supplies for Rail Pro

[Archive]

Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015

Yes it is a repeater for all the RailPro controllers, modules, & components.

You can read the PWR-56 manual here:
http://ringengineering.com/RailPro/Documents/PWR-56UsersManual.pdf

- Bill

[Archive]

Originally posted by kpack05 on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015

Similar to others, I have been taught to solder a feeder to every rail.  It may not be completely necessary, but it basically eliminates any issues that may arise from soldered rail or rail joiners.  When I was first learning how to lay track I was advised by Tony Sissons (originally from UK) that over there they solder TWO sets of feeders to every piece of track. One is hooked up to the bus, and the other set is left alone to be used for diagnosis of any future electrical problems and/or re-establishing an electrical connection without having to mess up scenery.  Apparently he also lays all his track without rail joiners so each section of rail is completely isolated from the other. 

For myself, I just have a single feeder on every piece of rail even though even that may be a bit of overkill.  Redundancy brings reliability in this case I think.

-Kevin

[Archive]

Originally posted by Shawn Hogan on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015

Well, I guess it's settled then. I'll be soldering feeder wires to all my rails! I like the idea of continuity.

Thank you Bill for the link to the manual. I downloaded it today and started to plod my way thru! Call me lazy, but sometimes I like hearing someone tell me what I will read eventually. Kinda helps anchor it in the brain.
Shawn

[Archive]

Originally posted by TS on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 29, 2015

Hi Shawn,

Yes it was a length of nickel silver rail.

The discussion on droppers just got me thinking about how we go about
electrical continuity and how the prototype goes about it so I wanted
to see just how resistive the rail was. The inability to get a stable
reading makes me think it was too small to measure.

Cheers,

Tim

[Archive]

Originally posted by TS on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 30, 2015

Hello all,

I decided to do some experimenting. I hooked a LM-2S up to my benchtop
power supply and got the following figures at no load.

At 5 volts the LM-2S responded - barely. You couldn't run trains at this
voltage anyway, it was just out of interest.

At around 10.4 volts I got the track under-voltage warning.
At around 16.2 volts I got the track over-voltage warning (~1.8 volts
less than maximum).

It was ok on 17.2 volts. I didn't dare go to the stated maximum of
18 volts. If I had one that was only worth destroying I'd see what it
could go to before failing.

So any DC power supply that outputs within ~12 to 16 volts is *probably*
fine to use instead of a PWR-56. You run your own risk though. Given
that you get a power supply, repeater and short protection the cost of
the PWR-56 is probably comparable to a quality DC power supply anyway.

Cheers,

Tim

[Archive]

Originally posted by Shawn Hogan on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 30, 2015

Thank you Tim! Interesting info. Sometimes I have to consider the "cheap" alternative before I'm convinced to by the "right" one.
I think the short protection is probably the most valuable reason to purchase the PWR-56.
Shawn

[Prostreetamx]

Started with a DCC supply that came with an Atlas DCC starter system. Ignored the voltage warning on the HC-2 controller. Smoked a $75 LM-2S. Bought a PWR-75. Lesson learned. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to save a few bucks. Your mileage may vary.