10 amp DCC

[UP2CSX]

Bob, LOL, it was really a hard something else but I thought I should keep the forum clean. Therapy works better when you're retired.

Rex, I know we had a bunch of engines running during the ops session I was at, including a lot of sound equipped units, and I never saw a power problem. Heck, I used up half the power going back and forth to get cars I forgot. Tony's has always been really good with me too. I don't know how many people work there but it seems like every one of them really know DCC and decoders.

 

[stationmaster]

Jim, when I was a youngster, I used to get my mouth washed out with soap for saying something "unclean". Does that mean if you type it that you have to wash your hands? Just wondering.

I think those folks at Tony's are all geniuses when it comes to DCC. I can remember back in the EARLY days there was a bit of misinformation on the directions with installing one specific model of decoder with a certain engine(one of my Bowser steam engines). Having the kind of luck I usually have, I found the discrepancy. I could not figure it out and toasted 3 decoders. I called Tony's and they didn't have an answer. The next day, a gentleman from Tony's called me with the fix. Seems he took some decoders home with him, as he had an identical engine, and found the problem as well as the solution. They even replaced the 3 decoders I toasted and a $25 gift certificate. That is going above and beyond. That simple action and show of dedication made me a customer for life.

Bob

 

[UP2CSX]

Bob, I do wash my hands a lot...hmmm....

I'll second your well deserved praise of the team at Tony's. I was installing a decoder in one of the old gray box P2K's and I couldn't make head nor tails out of the instructions. One of the guys stayed on the phone with me for half an hour to walk me through the problems. You'll never get that kind of help from any other place I've dealt with. The only thing I stumped them on is a Mantua Metal Trains F-7. They've never had anyone try to do a conversion on one. I still need to get the shell off one of these days and take a picture and e-mail to them for a look see.

 

[stationmaster]

Let me know what you find out about the F-units. I've got a couple on the shelf now that need to be converted at some point in time. I would imagine that you may need to step up the amps to a 1.5 though. Like the old Athearn Hi-Fi's, mine are amp hogs.

Of course, I could give it a twirl, especially if I get the decoders replaced and another $25 gift card. lol

Has anyone ever tried to put a decoder in passenger cars to operate the interior lights? I've been painting passenger cars most of the afternoon and the thought just came to me. Maybe make them flicker since the old wheel generators weren't the most efficient and dependable things on the old heavyweights.

Bob

 

[UP2CSX]

Bob, mine only draws about .6 amps on DC so, considering the thing weighs about as much as a brick and can pull every car I own, it's not too bad. The main problem I see is keeping everything away from that metal body, so that limits the size of the decoders. I heve yet to find an exploded parts diagram to understand how the motor is grounded and how it picks up power either. I'll have to yank off the shell and see if I can trace things down.

I remember reading an article somewhere about a guy who used a six function decoder and used the extra lighting outputs to light passenger cars. He ran the wires from the engine and from car to car using using mini plugs for connections. Seems like it would work for maybe a five or six car train.

 

[stationmaster]

Jim, I have some brass steamers that have been converted to DCC. Angela HAD, please notice the the emphasis, a hot plate thing. I absconded with it and used it to insulate the decoder . It was rather pliable and formed easily to the boiler. It was a rubber-like material. She bought it at Dollar Tree. They are, obviously, heat resistant and I've had no problems with using it. I will see if I can find some here.

Bob

 

[GandyDancer]

Is 10 amp dcc to much for HO? I want to run at least 3 or 4 HO at one time and possibly N scale also down the future.

Plenty of power. However with that much current available I would take extra precautions against short circuits. 10 amps will melt things down in a hurry.

Here is a tiny melt down. I had a picture of one much worse but can't find it now.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php?photo=110579&nojs=1

 

[leesheridan]

power

I've taken the advise of others and contacted Tony's. And in talking with them I'm going with the 5 amp upgrade. Also they recommended to wait on some of the other stuff I was thinking about due to some of the news stuff that is coming out shortly, and with that the prices will be coming down as well.

 

[MichiganMan]

Forgive a noobie question, but what is this "Tony's" of which you speak?

 

[stationmaster]

MM, here's the link:

http://www.tonystrains.com/

Absolutely the best people to deal with, knowledgeable and great prices. How many vendors do you know that would tell you to wait as the prices will be lower in the short future? Not many, I trust. Goes to show what type of people they are.

Bob

 

[Western Star]

I've taken the advise of others and contacted Tony's. And in talking with them I'm going with the 5 amp upgrade. Also they recommended to wait on some of the other stuff I was thinking about due to some of the news stuff that is coming out shortly, and with that the prices will be coming down as well.

Of course you could also still use that 10 amp supply but just not connect it directly to the track. Break the track into 4 blocks and use something like the zoneshare to restrict power and protect the trains.
http://www.cvpusa.com/doc_center/r2_Zoneshare_2_page_flyer.pdf
Digitrax also has similar but less featured version (item PM42?).

 

[Cjcrescent]

Here is a tiny melt down. I had a picture of one much worse but can't find it now.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php?photo=110579&nojs=1

One of our ex-clubmembers used to have the old PSI, (Power Systems Inc, IIRC) analog command control system on his layout and he had a 10amp. power supply on it.

He melted a P2K GP-9 body when he accidently parked it across the gap on a siding. The receiver overheated, as they were quite large, and melted the body in less than 3 minutes. The layout circuit breaker never popped. The receiver wasn't damaged, just hot!

 

[ChevelleSSguy]

I guess my wife would best describe me as being the guy on tv putting a bigger motor on a dishwasher and when it's turned on it shoots out the door because of too much power. When I was building street rods I always put the biggest motor I could in her and then just feel the vibration of the power. I think I'm looking at about 300' with out the yard and the N scale. And yes I'll have some grades and someday I want to operate all with the computer. My DCC unit is a NCE and I like the idea of the reverse loop feature with the 10 amp unit. Buy it once and get it over with.

Sumthin' like this?

Now that's one big RAT! And I think you know what I mean. To feel the power of something that was not suppose to be is just out of this world. What's it going in? An FN1 and your track is going to take the load. It looks great. You do know what I mean by the term Rat don't you. What's the cubes and HP? I see you have some heavy straps on the blower.

Not a RAT, a "monster mouse". It's a 410CI Rodek, based on a 400CI Chevy, billet. We had it dyno'd at around 1800HP. I brought it home and tamed it down a bit. Changed injector nozzles and blower drives and blades. Probably around 1200hp now. It's in my '41 Willys.

There is exactly 1 1/4" of clearance under the hood. And, yes, it will pull the front wheels of of the ground.

Another view.

Here's the car.

Bob

Darn Bob, I would love to have that car even if it had Mini mouse under the hood.

I would think that it would jump where's the ladder bars? The body looks nice, it looks like it's metal rather than plastic. How many hours to get it that way? The part of building up a car I liked the best was to start it for the first time knowing that that engine didn't belong in that car and with a carb you know there was going to be a flame shoot up by your arm as you do the final adjustment on the timing. My wife would complain about the house vibrating. the last custom I did was a 54 Ford Skyliner and it had to have louvers in the hood because there was no room for the air to flow out of the engine compartment. It had 1/4' from the radiator to the front of the water pump so I had two pusher fans on the front.

If'n ya look closely, Rex, ain't no windshield or windows in the car when that pic was taken. And it's not black anymore either. The only reason it's black is because the paint didn't come in in time to paint it for a show. And we pulled the windows to paint it. Black is all I had.

Bob

Now you guys are talking my language.