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PTB-100 connect to Zephyr Question

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  • Member since
    June 2011
  • 49 posts
PTB-100 connect to Zephyr Question
Posted by HudsonRR on Monday, June 22, 2020 12:08 PM

I recently acquirred a Soundtrax PTB-100 and need to connect it my Digitrax Zephyr.  The instruction call for wireing the PTB-100 to the power leads of the zephyr command station.  The problem is that the PTB-100 has wire leads and the Zephyr has a plug in power lead.  Question is how do I connect the two?  As a novice electricatian, the simpler, the better.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: Pittsburgh, PA
  • 1,796 posts
Posted by JoeinPA on Monday, June 22, 2020 12:14 PM

It involves cutting and splicing some wires. I avoided this by getting a small, 15 volts DC "wall wart" power supply and using it to power the PTB.

Joe

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 419 posts
Posted by UpNorth on Monday, June 22, 2020 10:44 PM

You will certainly have to cut off the plug end of the 15V power pack.  You can use AC or DC  and there is no polarity to worry about. Just plug the  wall wart power pack to both black wires on the PTB-100.  Any power pack that provides 14+ volts will do fine.

Marc

  • Member since
    October 2005
  • 1,047 posts
Posted by betamax on Tuesday, June 23, 2020 5:11 AM

Just attach a small external power supply to the black leads of the PTB-100. For best performance you should use a 15VDC power supply.  Since the PTB-100 can accept both AC and DC power, there is no issue with polarity of the power.

The minimum voltage is 14VDC, which may lead to problems during programming.  Soundtraxx recommends 15VDC at 500 mA for an external power supply.

The programming leads from the PTB-100 go to a separate programming track, not the main track. 

 

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