How does an accessory dumb booster tie in with the track booster? Can you just parallel them or do you have to isolate them? I am referring to the dumb booster that Tam Valley Depot sells to power their turnout decoders .If possible could you post a link to how these are hooked together. Their web site is not clear to me on how to do this .
Thanks
Bob D As long as you surface as many times as you dive you`ll be alive to read these posts.
Bob,
You connect the control bus from your command station booster to the control bus of your dumb booster. It's also good to ground the boosters together.
With an NCE Smart booster (SB3a) to dumb booster (DB3a) setup, the control bus connections are made with RJ12 connector cables. Other boosters may just use simple wire terminals to make the connections.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
In the case of a 'dumb' booster liek the simple Tam Valley one, you connect track power from your main booster to the inputs of it, that's where it gets the DCC signal from. Tap off your main track power BEFORE any circuit breakers you might have, that way the accessory booster still generates a signal if there is a short ont he layout.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy You say that the track power DCC input to the dumb booster board is where the quad pics get their dcc signal to energize the servos. This would then eleminate any cab bus to work the servos other than the main track cab bus Am I right? Do you use the accessory booster to work your quad pics? How much current do they draw. Also I assume that you are taking the entire load from the dumb booster and none from your track booster. The only thing that the track booster does is provide the signal from the pro cab throttle right?
I will be using 5 pics . How do you like the servo system?
I love the servos. I set mine all up with Singlets. I have a Zephyr that is my command station and a DB150 for a booster so what I am doing is powering all the servos with the Zephyr's output, the DB150's output is what goes to my track.
To use the Tam Valley booster, you would tap off the wires goign to your track as the input, and you'd run a bus line from the output of the Tam Valley booster to power all of your Quads.