Booster Questons

[rockymidlandrr]

thanks, yeah it does

[davekelly]

Does this help?

http://www.micromark.com/html_pages/instructions/83362i/83362booster.html

[rockymidlandrr]

I would like to thank everyone for the help, but it raised one more question since i want to use to 3.5 amp power supply that came with the Progidy Advance. I can still hook it up because it goes to the progidy and then to the track power. You were right jdavid93225, it is Power Station 8. All I need to do is run a wire from the commnd station track output slot to the booster, which will interpret the DCC signal and not burn up with the 3.5 amps coming from the track output on the command station.

-----------------------------
Michael Stephens
McCalla, Alabama
Rocky Midland RR -Up, Down, and Around the Rockies

[Anonymous]

MRC offers the "Power Station 8" booster for their DCC systems, which is the one Randy refers to above, if I'm not mistaken. I am not familiar with the "Command 8" booster, and can't find it on their website. If this is the same unit, it hooks up like Randy said, just connect the PA track output to the booster input. You will then need circuit breakers for each of your districts, which will all be hooked up in parallel to the booster output. What I opted for was the "PS Four" circuit breaker from Tony's Train Exchange ( http://www.tonystrains.com ). This provides four separately protected outputs for my power districts. Each of the four outputs goes to one district, for four districts total. The documentation that comes with the PS Four is pretty thorough and straightforward, and shows how to set it up quite well (at least in my opinion). MRC has information for their Power Station 8 available here (but it's not very helpful):
http://www.modelrectifier.com/products/trainSound/product.asp

They (MRC) also offer their new 3.5A booster that can be used for one district (along with the PA output for another).

I hope this helps.
Joe

[rrinker]

Yes, that's exactly it. But like I said, there should be some sort of circuit breaker in the pair of wires from the original command station/booster that goes to the track, otherwise you will have the entire layout shutting down in there's a short in he district powered by the command station/booster.
The other systems which have a seperate command bus (or Digitrax which combines it with the throttle bus) don't have this issue - the signal still gets to any additional boosters even if the track output of the command station/booster happens to shut down. But 5 (or 8, or 10, in the case of the CVP Booster10) amps is too much to connect directly to the track unless you are using a large scale that needs several amps per loco, so there's still a need for some sort of sub districts with individual power protection.

--Randy

[simon1966]

So for clarification then Randy, would you split the output from the command station/booster track leads and send one pair to the tracks of booster district one, and the second pair to the Powerstation? Which in turn is connected to booster district two.

[rrinker]

MRC's add-on booster gets connected to the track outputs of the original booster to pick up the DCC signal. It actually can be used with any DCC system because of that. It just makes it that much more important to have some sort of fast acting circuit breaker downstream of that connection - or else not use the original booster for anything, because if there is no protection and something shorts the original booster, that will interrupt the signal to the second booster as well.

--Randy

[simon1966]

Rocky, I also do not have any MRC DCC experience, however this is what I would expect.

You are correct that each booster needs to be providing power to its own isolated section of the layout. The power can be further broken down for each booster into power districts using a powershield.

In both Digitrax and NCE worlds, boosters are linked together by a command bus. In the case of Digitrax this is the loconet that connects all the Digitrax elements. The command bus is what allows the main command station to send the DCC commands to the booster, which in turn puts the signals onto the section of track that it powers.

I took a look at the PA manual on the MRC site and it says nothing about hooking up a booster and does not really say what the connections are for so I could not see if there is a command bus. Reading the limited info on the Powerstation gives the impression that you just put it in series between the command station and track, which would mean that you can not use the PA booster and the Powerstation to boost different track section. I suspect that you may be better off contacting MRC and asking them directly how to do this.

[claycts]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rockymidlandrr

I have a MRC Progidy Advance DCC system and am going to have to eventually divide my layout into power districts, how many would you recommend for a 23 by 19 foot railroad in HO scale. How do the tracks supplied by the booster get the digital signal from command station if the rails are cut to isolate the booster for the command station. I cant run a feeder wire from the command station to the booster rails as that would defeat the purpose of isolating the tracks. I plan to get a MRC Command 8 for my booster , could someone tell me how to hook it up. I plan to run about 4-5 trains at a time with 30 to 50 cars pulled by 2 to 3 engines, so I dont think the Command 8 is an overkill, I just need to know how to hook it up.

No help on MRC but the wiring is the same for all DCC (HO scale)
1. Bus wire is #12 awg Stranded NO MORE than 45 ft loop from the supply point
2. The supply point is the center with the wires going our from that point.
3. Feeder drops are #22 Awg Solid if under 12 " long and #18 awg stranded and tinned (keeps the wild hares from creeping out) if longer.
4. Hook up is the mfg diagram that you should get with the product if not Google the unit there must be a diagram for that system.
5. You SHOULD use a breaker system, Tony's PSfour or equal, to isolate each district so one short does not take down the whole railroad.
6. Soldering is the key to this. Solder ALL curves (prevents kinks( and every other straight section on alternat rails. This is IF you use flex track.
Hope this helps a little. I am sure that there will be other opinions.
Take care
George P.

[rockymidlandrr]

I have a MRC Progidy Advance DCC system and am going to have to eventually divide my layout into power districts, how many would you recommend for a 23 by 19 foot railroad in HO scale. How do the tracks supplied by the booster get the digital signal from command station if the rails are cut to isolate the booster for the command station. I cant run a feeder wire from the command station to the booster rails as that would defeat the purpose of isolating the tracks. I plan to get a MRC Command 8 for my booster , could someone tell me how to hook it up. I plan to run about 4-5 trains at a time with 30 to 50 cars pulled by 2 to 3 engines, so I dont think the Command 8 is an overkill, I just need to know how to hook it up.