5 Amp Trip / 3 A Continuous Duty DCC Booster Board


K

Kraujon

New Member
Hi Everyone! I am looking for information about using the Tam Valley 5 Amp Trip / 3 A Continuous Duty DCC Booster Board to create a dedicated DDC Accessory Buss to power my switches. I am in the planning stage of my wiring needs for my 3 level 50 ft for each separate (no helix) layout. On Friday I received the 5amp NCE Ph Pro (r) wireless which I will place in the center of the layout so I can wire the DCC Track Buss via 6 PSX circuit breakers so no section exceeds 25 feet using 14 ga speaker wire. Concerning the DDC Accessory Buss, i want to break it up into 6 sections so no line exceeds 25 ft as well but I am presently uninformed about how to precede. I tried to attach a picture of the wire diagram from Tam Valley but unable to figure out how to paste it in this request.
It appears I do need an “accessory booster“ but I thought the tam valley product is that so I’m confused. I understand the option to use dc power pack for switches but I’d like to proceed with more knowledge about creating a DDC Accessory Buss.
Thank you for taking the time to help me with this.
 
I am not sure of your question, but it seems to me you need two parallel buses, one with its own power supply/booster to do nothing more than to power accessories. So, it can be 'spliced' into any spot on the main bus, ideally close to the output terminals of the main unit, or even sharing those outputs if they'll take the double-wrap around the posts. However, you don't want any long feeders off of the bus the booster powers, and you don't want the booster to be 'pushing' a bus that is itself overlong. Basically, if you have 14/12 gauge solid copper wire running more than maybe 35', you are starting to get a sufficient drop in the ideal voltage for DCC at your scale that you'd want yet another booster daisy-chained. However, if you are only powering accessories, and nothing like decoders, then the voltage drop can be quite significant over distances to power essentially DC objects, and you needn't be concerned. It's their ultimate performance that will determine if you need to power them with more robust voltages.
 
Bear in mind, many accessories regulate the voltage that they obtain from the booster before feeding it to the accessory, so voltage drops in that cable may not be as critical as for engines, where the track voltage to the motor is controlled via PWM, but not regulated. In the latter case, variations in the track voltage will directly influence the motor speed/torque. Not so, with accessories generally. Of course, it's always necessary to provide enough power for reliable operation.
 
If you need to break the bus into 6 sections, then yes you will need one booster for each section OR a power management unit that isolates the block into separate sections such as the Digitrax PM42. Specifically the PM42 does 4 blocks so you would need two, but there might be other brands that do more than 4.
 
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