Hi guys
Sorry to bring up the topic of the Walthers 130' turntable but.............
The power requirement is 15v AC or DC 500mA.
I have 16v AC 1.25A............ is that OK to use? (Don't want to blow the TT that took me over a year to get!)
Thanks in advance.
Bsteel4065,
Hi, It is recommended that 16v AC be used for best performance; 12v may be used. In both cases, not to exceed 18 volts. Don't know where you got the 15 volts from. Misprint?
16V AC 1.25A, will be fine.
https://www.walthers.com/instructions/0933/09330000002850.pdf
Take Care!
Frank
Hi Frank
Yeah, should have been 16v.
That's great........... thanks!
Regards
Barry
Is there any issue here?
If the drive works best at 16 volts, and you have a 16 volt power supply (wall wart, I assume), I don't see any issue.
If you are concerned with your power supply, use a volt meter to test it.
Rich
Alton Junction
I believe he's concerned with teh 1.2 amp capacity of the wall-wart (which is fine).
Power supplies and motors (or lights) are backwards of each other.
Things USING electricity (your motor, lights, etc.) "pull" (for lack of a better word) amps.
Things PROVIDING electricity "push" out a set number of amps, that cannot be exceeded.
Since your draw (500mA) is less than your available capacity (1.2A), you'll be fine.
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
bsteel4065Hi guys Sorry to bring up the topic of the Walthers 130' turntable but............. The power requirement is 15v AC or DC 500mA.
This is why He asked the question....He mistakenly thought the power requirement was 15volts.
Frank, and others.
There is a 15 volt turntable. Walthers made 2 different types of turntables.
The First one is a NON DCC turntable #933-2829 in it, it states " The drive operates best at 15 Volts AC or DC, 500mA; a minimum of 12 Volts is required, but total output must not exceed 19 Volts AC (RMS) or DChttps://www.walthers.com/instructions/0933/09330000002829.pdf
The DCC one (DCC Control Box) #933-2850 this one has the DCC "digital control box" it states this...
The drive operates best at 16 Volts AC, 500mA; a minimum of 12 Volts is required, but total output must not exceed 18 Volts AC (RMS) or DC. https://www.walthers.com/instructions/0933/09330000002850.pdf
Hence he is correct IF he has the #933-2829 130 ft Turntable.
"Sometimes the Most real things in life, are the things we can not see."
Well, then, maybe Frank mistakenly thought that the OP had the DCC version.
But, either way, DC or DCC, the OP's 16 volt power supply is wthin the recommended range.
So, as I asked in the first place, is there really any issue here?
Hawk007,
You are correct. I was assumming that He had the newer DCC version, since He purchased it not long ago. I have the original DC 130' FT version and run it at 14vdc, mainly for the slower speed and I forgot that 15v was recommended, either will work as long as you don't exceed the max voltage. I think I got mine around 2004.
Thanks for the refresher...been 10yrs since the install.
Me too Frank, got mine in 2004.
We still need to hear from the OP as to which one he has, although it seems like the non-DCC version.
The one I have is the Non DCC version. If I only knew that one day they would have come out with a DCC version. I would have waited. though I did have to wait for about 5 months to get the one I have. so sad...
All that the DCC version does that yours doesn't is you can turn the bridge via your DCC controller. Everything else is exactly the same. And getting the DCC version programmed for the stop points isn't exactly easy - search some of the other posts here about it.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have a non DCC version also,
One thing that I believe is true about the common wall warts we use so often is that the voltage rating is measured at or near the rated amperage. So, as I understand it, if you read the voltage of a 12 volt WW that has very little load on it you might see something closer to 14 or 16 volts (maybe more?).
I always try to measure the voltage that I am looking for with the load in the circuit. What I'm saying is that if you were going to drive a few GOW lamps and you use a wlll wart rated for, say 750 mA and you're only loading it to 50 or 100 mA you might be getting more than the rated voltage, so choose carefully.
I have collected scores of wall warts rated anywhere from 1.2 V @200 mA up to 48 volts, 5 amps!
Just a precautionary message, Ed
Actually, unless they tell you at what load level they rated it, you really don't know for sure, especially with the random CHinese-made wall warts. Non-regulated ones will be all over the place, most drop below the rated voltage at full load, but are well above it no load.
If powering something that has a narrow voltage tolerance - use a regulated wall wart. They won't shoot up way above the rated voltage under low load conditions. And especially if there is a varying load - say you light up all your structures with incandescent bulbs, but put them on multiple switched circuits so you can turn on the lights at different times. If you use say a 12V unregulated wall wart that puts out 16+ volts under no load, the first set you turn on will see well over their rated voltage, which will gradually decrease as you turn on more and more lights, until there is enough load to pull the voltage down to the nominal 12V it's supposed to be. A regulated supply won't have this problem. You might see a few tenths of a volt over the nominal rating with light or no load, but not several volts higher.
It's always a good idea not to load down any power supply more than 75% of its rated capacity, so for example for 750ma worth of lights, you should use a 1 amp power supply.
Nice thing is, 15V regulated power supplies are eacy to come by - it's a common voltage for many laptops and LCD monitors. There are tons of eBay sellers with 15V regulated power bricks (and not brick size, much smaller) for $5-$10 shipped. The smaller ones are good for about 1 amp, so they can run a good bit of accessories before you need a second circuit and another power supply. Such as 75-80 LEDs. That's a lot of structure lighting.
I've been wondering for a long time...what exactly does "runs best at" a certain voltage mean? The turntable turns faster or slower? Better longetivity of the t.t. motor? I think I'm using a 13 v. wall wart rather than the "optimum" 15 v. Is there any important difference going a bit lower or higher than the recommended voltage?
Thanks, Jim
Raised on the Erie Lackawanna Mainline- Supt. of the Black River Transfer & Terminal R.R.
"optimum' in this context probably means a combination of a voltage that will turn the bridge at a reasonable speed and also one that is high enough for the voltage regulator in the control electronics to work yet not so high that it just wastes a lot of energy as heat.
Case in point on the second part - my first computer was a single board unit that had a 5V regulator on board to run the circuits. In those days, most computers were made by shoestring operations - at least, computers that you could afford to have at home. There was no IBM PC. As such, they tended to source the chepeast accessories they could. The power brick for this thing was asomewhat oversized wall wart rated at 8.3V, fairly close to ideal for a 5V regulator, except that after rectification and filtering, it was closer to 12V. Still ok for a 5V regulator, except that in a linear regulator that excess 7 volts gets wasted almost entirely as heat. Witht he 6 LED readouts, the total current came very close to the maximum for the regulator, even with a heat sink attached. (side note, just two of those LEDs drew more current than the entire rest of the computer!). Simple expedient - a string of cheap 1N4001 silicon diodes ahead of the regulator, dropping the near 12V to more like 8.5V (I believe there were 5 diodes, each with a 0.7V drop), keeping the regulator cooler by reducing how much excess voltage it had to dissipate.
SO, too low a voltage, no good because it will drop the voltage to the controller too far and it may operate erractically, too much and you may overvolt the controller and damage parts of it. Just right, the electronics get their proper voltage, and the bridge motor gets the right voltage to move at realistic speed without imitating the spin cycle of a washing machine.
Thank you Randy! I've asked club members and friends but no one really knew what "optimum" really meant.
My 13 v. wall wart seems to be doing the job fine, but wanted to check to see if I really needed "optimum"
Jim