Hi!
In building the current layout - my first with DCC - I had little to go on as far as laying out the various pieces of the controls (i.e. power supplies, command module, boosters, circuit breakers, etc. Sooo, as some of you may recall, a couple of months ago I did a posting asking you all for advice and pictures of your set-ups. They were a big help, and I finally got mine in place.
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the layout's "command post". There is a Digitrax 5 amp super chief with second booster - both with their own 5 amp power supplies. Each of the two route thru a DCC Specialties PSX-4 set of circuit breakers - yielding 8 power districts. There are two DT-400 throttles - one to the left of the command post, and the second at the entrance to the layout. I picked up those plastic pockets for them, and they do the job.
Hey, thanks for all the help!
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Hi again,
Forgot to add.......... 3 of the 8 power districts are not yet wired. Also, turnouts and lights, etc., are powered by an MRC powerpack which is located elsewhere.
Thanks,
Looks good.
I would recommend getting a small fan of some sort to blow on the command station and booster. When the system goes into thermal shutdown it is no fun. Had that happen at my dad's house a little while ago. Had about 15-20 engines running at once. Let things cool down, pointed a fan at the DCC stuff, and we continued the rest of the session just fine.
Where does the gray Loconet wire coming out of the DB150 go? Might be redundant, or a cause of corruption if things get complicated. On a booster I like to just run the Loconet in, and maybe a Loconet to another booster. Otherwise, the throttles could cause problems. I would also consider running a ground wire between the DCS100 and the DB150, using the ground terminals on the front. All these steps should help to make the system perform flawlessly.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
As I almost always run the layout alone, I doubt overheating will ever be a problem - but I am aware of the possibility and will keep that in mind.
The grey wire out of the DB150 goes to a second DT400 throttle. Of course I could have daisy chained off of the UP5 in the picture, but thought I would "see if it worked" going directly from the booster. I "assume" in my situation (two operators tops) that it really doesn't matter either way.
With your light usage, you probably won't have any problems.
My experience comes from working on the club layout, where 6-10 trains could be moving at once, and some have questionable wiring which causes shorts from time to time. Brass steam engines are good for this, compounded by sound decoders installed in same.
If the system shorts out enough, data can get corrupted, and things grind to a halt. We have had engines get reprogrammed in periods of instability. I'm thinking of disabling analog on the system to help get around this. On my engines I turn off analog via CV29, which seems to help.
When the system recovers after a short, sometimes it puts a little bit of an analog signal on the rail, which I think might be doing the reprogramming and other goofy things.