Im connecting about 20 Atlas switch machines to Atlas 200 Relays. What do you recommend for a power supply?
Gary
I would use the auxillary posts of an MRC power supply - e.g. MRC Railpower 1370. That should give you plenty of voltage - 19VAC, in fact.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
What have you got?
I use the AC output from my old train tranformer from the 1950s Yes, you read it right. That feeds a home-built capacitive discharge circuit (a bridge rectifier, 2 capacitors and 2 resistors.) I use it for a couple of dozen Atlas and Peco machines.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Circuitron Snapper works very well. Feed the snapper with AC or DC.
With a Snapper or home made CDU, never have to worry about a burnt turnout coil.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I have a couple MRC power packs from my old DC railroad that have been repurposed for powering accessories only. I placed them on opposite sides of the layout room and run all accessory wiring to one or the other.
You can do this a couple of different ways.
Atlas switch machines draw 2-3 amps EACH. So a stand alone power supply can be used but should be capable of a 2 amp output. I use a old Lionel SW and it bangs them pretty well, even two at once for crossovers.
The other way is with a CD unit which can be driven by most any trainset pack or low amp power supply.
Jim
Doesn't matter how many Atlas Machines you have. Yo only move on lever at a time.
That said, LION just hits them with a hammer until they are all mushed up, and then replaces them with Tortoise machines.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I have over 120 Atlas Switch machines and some of them have Atlas Snap relays tied into them. The most I throw at once, and momentary are 4 machines/relays. I use MRC power packs. Again, the power is momentary, not constant like tortoise machines.
Neal
So it seems the concensus here is use one of your old DC power Packs AC Accessory terminals. I was hoping to find a stand alone like they make for DC.
gdelmoro So it seems the concensus here is use one of your old DC power Packs AC Accessory terminals. I was hoping to find a stand alone like they make for DC.
There are..but you have to know your way around electrical wiring. I use a center tap 36v/18v AC 6amp Transformer wired to 120vac directly in My control panel, control with normally open push buttons, all are under table Atlas machines, with snap relays for frog power, signals and control panel lights. The control panel, signal lights are run from a 4amp 12v DC Transformer wired to the snap relays and wired to 120vac again inside the control panel. 45 of them, have not had any problems at all with any of it....up and working since 1990.
Take Care!
Frank
In the pic', the black terminal barrier strip is the 120vac in.....separate fuses for each circuit. I found no need for a filtered regulated power supply, for there are no transistors, etc. requiring a filtered regulated circuit.
Hello all,
I too have a similar number of turnouts on my layout. Some are Atlas and some are PECO.
There are several that are wired together so when one button is activated both set of points move on separate turnouts.
I use a 16 VAC plugin transformer (wall wart) to two Capacitor Discharge Units (CDU's) wired in parallel.
One CDU powers half of the turnouts while the other powers the other half. Many folks on these forums have said my use of two CDU's is over kill, but with two PECO switch machines in parallel the extra oomph helps.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
Peco has 2 different models of point motors, one draws much less power than the other (designed for use with DCC stationary decoders).
Not all CD supplies are equal, some have circuitry for fast recharge, and some have bigger capacitors than others (higher value capacitor = more energy at the same voltage level). 2 may or may not be overkill. Might be safer to run each from its own wall wart, if you don;t already. Quick recover types have a pretty high inrush current and if both happen to recharge at the same time it might be too much current for one wall wart.
All depends on the switch motors, too. Years ago (like 1979) the Atlas N scale ones were realtively low current and my rather modest CDU with I think a 2200uF cap could easily throw 4 of them at the same time (about as many control buttons as I could press at once). Since my entire layout had 8 turnouts I was more then good - it also recharged fast enough so that if I hit one button and fired one off, by the time I moved my finger to the next button over and pressed it, it was already recharged.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Just any chance you could post a wiring diagram?
My current point activator power supply started life as a wall wart meant to recharge 18 volt power tools. I use diode selection where one wire feeds both coils of my 2 coil machines (KTM or RIX, not Atlas) so the actual voltage at the machine is about 10v RMS (21 volts split to half-wave, with 1.4v diode drop.) Plenty of power to throw two sets of points at once, never used for more.
Chuck (Modeling Cetral Japan in September, 1964)
gdelmoro Just any chance you could post a wiring diagram?
Until Randy gets back, look at the below link. Some put more capacitance. I think I have seen as much as 10,000 ufd for a bunch of point motors on a diode matrix ladder setup.
http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/CDU-2/CDU-2.html
Close enough to that one. Mine came from Practical Electronic Projects for Model Railroaders (long out of print, Kalmbach) and used a 2N3055 transistor and just a single resistor, not 4x 2.2K in parallel (can't imagine the nearest single equivalent, 560 ohms, wouldn't be close enough - 4x2.2K parallel is 550 ohms). It's also similar to one of the multiple versions on Rob Paisley's site. Simple circuits.