Legacy/TMCC & DCS With Power Blocks???

[wsdimenna]

 Have about 600 ft of track using four power blocks. One for each TIU port. Each power lead goes to a terminal block (12 lead) which feeds a section of track, where the center rail has an insulating pin between each feed. The legacy wire was placed at the output port of fixed one. Actually run three of the ports as fixed and one as variable (place to add engines while other trains are running, then turn on). A light bulb is across  each terminal block to enhance DCS signal.

My sense is that you can have about 120 ft of track per tiu port.   I don't know of a way to have more then  4 power districts per TIU ,without signal degradation.  Maybe someone else does.

For the conventional section you may want to consider a tpc-400 power controller with its own power supply, Then you would have 4 tiu leads for your command section.

[Bill54]

So if my layout consists of two upper loops and two lower loops and I want to break all loops into several power blocks (4 each) I can use the two convential outputs in a convential manner with toggle switches to turn blocks on and off as necessary.

However, on the command mode loops on the lower level I would need more than one TIU if I wanted to break them into four power blocks each, since the two variable outputs will be consumed by the two upper level loops, correct? 

Bill

[willpick]

The usual maximum linear distace for a block is around 100 ft.. To use all 4 channels, you must set the variable channels to fixed, and turn the DCS signal on all 4 channels. 

If you have a very large layout, a second TIU would be needed. If you follow the reccomended practices that MTH has developed, you should not have problems.

To wire multiple blocks, the usual practice is to run paired wires to a central point, then fan out from there to the track.

 

HTH--- 

[Bill54]

I recently bought the MTH DCS system and wanted to break up my two main lines into power blocks.

 

I also have the Legacy system which I plan on running on the same main lines.

 

The question is with the DCS system.  If I want to break the layout up into four or more power blocks do I need more than one TIU?  If not then how do you wire the layout into several power blocks with only one TIU?

 

Thanks,

Bill