RailPro > RailPro Specific Help & Discussion
Other Power Supplies for Rail Pro
Archive:
Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015
Shawn,
I have feeders to every piece of track on the layout.
I only run 4 to 6 locomotives at one time.
I have 304ft of Mainline Run and 207ft of sidings
My PWR-56 is located at the 1/3 and 2/3's point between the ends of my point to point layout.
The longest theoretical distance away from the power supply is 56 feet.
Short protection has been tested at the far ends and it passes (This is important)
Let me explain the location of my PWR-56. My trackplan overlaps at a certain point that allows me to effectively locate my power supply where the length of run is split evenly 3 ways.
In this diagram, the bus runs are shown in different colours for clarity. They interconnect at the Power Supply and are joined at the end of the orange and purple lines, so the power has multiple routes to all of the locations.
http://www.pdc.ca/personal/Blog%20Images/2015-07-28%20BNML%20Trackplan%20power%20distribution.jpg
Archive:
Originally posted by TS on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015
Hi Shawn,
Well I thought I'd get the first answer in but Bill beat me to it, but
his message does give an important hint on where to place your
power supply.
Ring's documentation states a maximum of 18 volts. The minimum who
knows; it's not stated anywhere I can find. The Amps, well that could
be as little as will run one locomotive or enough to power everything
in your house; your trains will only draw the power they need but
when a short happens a lot of Amps at your disposal will cause a lot
of damage very quickly without a short protection system than can
react even quicker than you can blink an eye. I'd recommend no more
than 3 amps.
The PA-2 power supply included with the PWR-56 outputs 15 volts. It's
about half a volt less on the track output.
If your supply is within acceptable range it will work, though if it's
not regulated it might not work as well as expected with a full load on
it.
I haven't set anything up myself but yes you'll need droppers and I
guess you'll need just as many droppers as with DCC or any other
system; the more the better. I actually tried to get a resistance
measurement of a length of rail the other day (to work out voltage drop
of the rail) and I couldn't even get a stable reading. A decent sized
bus with a good amount of droppers will give you more enjoyment and
supposedly less frustration in the long run anyway.
Cheers,
Tim
Archive:
Originally posted by Shawn Hogan on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015
Bill,
Each color represents a set (+/-) or pair of wires, correct? What gauge did you use for the bus pair?
Maybe this question doesn't apply here but do you(and anybody else reading this thread) use a feeder wire on every section of rail or if using flex track, then every section of flex. The last layout I built, we soldered every other set of rail joiners. Seemed to work OK.
Shawn
Archive:
Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015
Shawn,
Yes, each colour represents a pair of +/- wires.
I used stranded 18GA wire and stranded 22GA feeders with suitcase connectors.
I would have used 16GA but 18 is what I had.
I have feeders to every piece of flex track.
I only soldered my flextrack together on or at curves.
- Bill
Archive:
Originally posted by LK&O on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Jul 28, 2015
Every piece of my track has a feeder including frogs and points. All rail joiners are soldered except at module connections. 12 AWG bus, 24 AWG feeders (12" or less). All connections are soldered, ring terminal soldered, or screw gate barrier blocks. Overall bus length is roughly 120' point to loop arrangement. A 1A resistive damper load is at furthest point from power supply.
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