Hi,
I'm running a Digitrax Super Chief with second booster on my HO layout. There are 8 blocks, each going thru two PS-4 circuit breakers. Feeders are 3-4 feet apart over the entire 11x15 layout, and everything runs quite well.
On the rare occasion that I have a short - alway operator caused I confess - the power to that particular block shuts off immediately (as it should). I correct the problem - the last time being the placement of a KaDee coupler gauge on an operating track (duhhhhhh!) - but the power does not come back on. After a few minutes, if I turn the system off, and then back on again, all is well.
I sense this isn't correct, but don't know if I have a system problem or need to make some adjustments or what............ Any ideas????
Thank you!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Who makes the PS-4 breakers? Also is the PS-4 breaker hanging or is the entire booster going down?
Springfield PA
Wow. My layout is a little bigger than yours and I was only going to block it into 2 districts. I have the Digitrax Super Chief but dont have a booster. I am only planning on running 4-6 engines at a time and have been told the 5 amps is ok for that. What booster do you have?
Sounds like an option on the PS-4. Out of the box they are supposed to auto reset, the manual reset mode is an option. Next time it happens (or if it is easily repeatable by causing a short and then removing it), start taking off locos that are in the section being affected.
What I have always found interesting is that the PS breakers were replaced by the PSX line to make them work with sound locos and the inrush current usualyl present with the large capacitors. Aroudn this time it also started becoming 'common knowledge' that the Digitrax PM42 couldn;t handle sound loco inrush, if you search places like the Digitrax Yahoo group you will find people say this happens on their club layout with as few as ONE sound loco. However, testing my layout, I had a loco with a Tsunami, a loco with a SOundtraxx LC, a loco with a Loksound 3.5, and 3 other locos with TCS T-1 motor only decoders all sitting in the same section. I shorted the rails, my PM42 clicked and the LED indicating a short in that section came on. I removed the short, the PM42 clicked - and the power came up just fine! People have often claimed this also happens withotu a breaker - ie, the Digitrax boosters can;t recover on their own either. Our 14x102 club modular layout has 3 boosters approximately equally spaced around the layout, two of them feed a PM42 each, the other just feeds the track bus. We have LOTS of sound engines running, and the system has always recovered from a short with no extra help like tippig the sound locos off the rails. It even worked at the last show when one of our power supplies blew and the only replacement we had was a 12V one - so track voltage through one whole end of the layout was only 11.5V and other than trains slowing down a bit, it all worked fine and the show went on.
I only post my experiences to make note that what seems to be 'common knowledge' is often 'common disinformation'. If taking locos off the track results in the PS-4 finally resettign itself, then perhaps it does suffer from an inrush problem, and the solution is goign ot be either repalce it with a PSX-4, or add 1156 bulbs in parallel with each section - I have stated before I am not a fan of using light bulbs, as it still allows about 2 amps to flow through a 'short' and they should not be relied on as the sole protection method. Parallel with the breaker, what will happen is that full current will flow until a short is detected. The breaker will open up, and the light bulb will come on, passing about 2 amps or so. Whent he short is removed, th bulb allows enough current to recharge the capacitors, and the breaker cna reset and once again allow full power.
For those that insist on light bulbs instead of real breakers, Dick Bronson has a great option that will limit short circuit current to 0.4 amps which is much less capable of damaging or melting anything: http://www.rr-cirkits.com/Notebook/short.html
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks all!
I believe I've got the manual option set on the breakers, so I need to change it to automatic. To answer a previous question, these are made by Digital Specialties, and I understand them to be high quality items.
I've got 8 power districts "just because" - and to use each breaker of the two 4 piece circuit breakers. Having two levels, and running a lot of ABBA consists and about a dozen sound locos, I wanted to make sure I had plenty of power, and added the second Digitrax booster.
Ha, when I first contemplated DCC, I wanted a 20 amp (4- 5 amp) set up and the good folks on this forum talked me out of it. Of course they were right, and the two 5 amps are more than enough - but not much more.
Thanks again!
mobilman44 Thanks all! I believe I've got the manual option set on the breakers, so I need to change it to automatic.
I believe I've got the manual option set on the breakers, so I need to change it to automatic.
You might want to change one of them to "automatic" first and see how you like the operation. I think our club has some of those and when they tripped, they seemed to take an awful long time for them to reset. Actually the first couple of them we had would reset pretty quickly, but then the newer ones seemed to have the delay issue. And the reset time was not adjustable.
You might also want to consider if having the auto reset is truly a good thing. We had situations where someone got distracted, was not paying attention, and would drive the train the wrong way into a turnout. Then everything else in that power district would come to a quick halt, followed by jack rabbit starts and stops as the breaker reset itself and tripped again. Of course the original culprit had wandered off to get a cookie, go to the head, or otherwise disappear and be unaware that he had caused the issue. Or the other scenario where someone forgets to put the loco at speed step zero and it creeps into the same thrown turnout. In both these cases, something sits there and starts to fry until someone with good hearing hears that high pitch short circuit sound.
We made a decision that it was better to have a manual pushbutton to reset the breakers. That way if something happened it forced you to look for the problem. I believe that those things also have a place where you can hook up a track pilot light....no light, no power to the track, breaker is tripped.
Maxman,
Thank you for the insight - you really brought up some interesting points.
Being I'm the only operator (normally), the occasion for a short has been pretty infrequent - so maybe I'm better off just leaving it alone.
Thanks!