Is there such a thing? I think the NMRA spec says 12 volts but is that the best or is it to accomodate variation between manufactures, sound/non-sound decoders, etc?
I have a DCS240 with 3 boosters - all Digitrax. All powered by it own PS2012. No sound decoders at this point
I had noticed that when loco's moved from a booster powered district into a DCS240 powered district, the loco's sped up noticable. I measured track voltage and found 11.8V in all booster powered districts but 13.7V in the DSC240 districts. To keep everything balanced, I adjusted the DCS240 output down to 11.8V to match the boosters. That was the quickest and easiest approach.
However, this got me to thinking. Siince I can adjust my Digitrax cmd stations and boosters to any level I want (within reason), it there a prefered voltage level I should adjust them to? I have seen comments that sound equipped loco's may run better (cooler?) at lower voltages than may be prefered with non-sound loco's.
Is there a prefered voltage other than the NMRA standard?
Paul D
N scale Washita and Santa Fe RailroadSouthern Oklahoma circa late 70's
you may be interested in Mark Gurries page on NMRA Track Voltage and NMRA S-9.
S-9 says no less than 12V for DC and S-9.1 says no more than 2V more than the voltage specified in S-9 for DCC. (I'm not sure how to interpret it since S-9 allows 15V). Presumably, the recomendation is +/-14V for DCC.
while it certainly makes sense that all your equipment outputs the same voltage. Unless you'd like your engines to run faster, there's no need to increase the voltage.
I wonder if the sound level of sound decoders depends on track voltage.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
The N scale setting on Digitrax boosters is 12 volts. Your measurement of 11.8 volts is just about right. You could adjust that up to 12 volts if desired. When I was doing test for the NTRAK wiring standard in 2005, my no load readings at the boosters were 11.9 volts. With a 3 amp load the reading dropped to 11.6 volts at the booster.
Martin Myers
Thanks all. I think I will let my system stay at 11.8. My main concern was to get same voltage on all track sections. I am getting ready to do some loco speed matching and I wanted to remove variations that might mess me up.