can you use the same negative ( -- ) wire for your districts, or do you need to run a negative with each power district bus. i will have three districts.
Power districts use a separate booster. In that case, you need to run two new bus wires for that power district. You must also cut a gap in both rails.
Sub power districts are made by using one or more current protection devices such as a circuit breaker or light bulb attached to the hot output wire of the booster. In this case, you can use the same common bus wire for all sub power districts. The new hot bus wire would come from the circuit breaker, and the hot rail must be gaped between sub districts.
Hope this helps.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
thanks thats all i needed to know . have a happy new year
As mentioned - Power Districts are double gapped and have two wires. A Power District can be fed by a booster, or by devices like the Digitrax PM42 - it will divide you the booster output into 4 Power Districts. I have a Cmd Station and a Booster - The PM42 provide 2 seperate Power Districts for the Cmd Station and 2 for the Booster. The advantage is that if I derail a train in the yard's Power District(very possible when switching), that short will not shut down the entire layout - only trains in the yard are affected. I also have 2 main-line Power Districts and a staging Power District. This breaks up the railroad so that the chance of a complete DCC shutdown of the layout is quite rare.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Sorry for coming late to this party, but I'm getting ready to extend the wiring of my layout into the next section, and I'm thinking it would be wise to do a sub district for the yard. I've read a couple of places about wiring an automotive brake light bulb as a circuit breaker for the sub district.
Being a very visually oriented person, I wonder if someone could produce a simple, idiot proof diagram showing how this is done.
Please bear in mind that scenery is my favorite part of the hobby, and the mysteries of what goes on in all those wires under the layout plum evade me.
Thanks in advance for your indulgence!
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
The blue box is my main AC Power supply. It is a 12 Amp power supply which powers both my command station/booster and booster (the gray boxes). There is a circuit breaker to prevent an overload from destroying my boosters. Connected to each booster are 4 solid state circuit breakers. The ones I bought allow you to daisy chain them on the input side to save a little bit of wiring. I have a total of 8 power districts on the layout. Each district is electrically isolated from the others (ie double gaps at each end of the district and separate bus wires underneath. This makes diagnosing issues much easier as well because i can locate what part of the layout the issue is coming from.
I hope this helps.
To use a light bulb, you would just place in series with one of the bus wires for a particular district. You would need additional bulbs for each district and wire them in series for that bus wire. I however think the lightbulbs defeat the purpose of the built in circuit breakers of almost all DCC systems and refuse to use them. DC is a different matter however and they serve a good purpose there.
Colorado Front Range Railroad: http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/
That sound you just heard was my head exploding. ..
I guess it would be helpful to report that I'm using MRC Prodigy Advance. I understand Digitrax provides a myriad of part numbers and gadgets to do all kinds of things, but it seems you have to have Mr. Science as one of your operating crew to fully understand it.
I'll try the MRC site and see if that's any use. I'll probably just break down and buy a booster, set up a power district around that, and be done with it.
Thanks for taking a stab at it for me!
Here is Joe Fugates wiring diagram for using 1156 light bulbs.
Lee,
The light bulb goes in series with one of the bus wires going to your yard. Typically an 1156 tail light bulb. Get a socket at the local Auto parts store. There's one on RT 50. The socket will have two wires. Cut one of your bus wires and connect one of the socket's wires to each of the cut ends. Put a bulb in, turn track power on and short the track. Bulb should light but track power will stay on.
You coulda asked this on RW
Martin Myers
What renegade has is applicable to any DCC brand, there's nothing inherently 'digitrax' about what he described otehr than he is using a Digitrax system. That could just as easily be NCE boosters or Lenz or Easy-DCC or MRC. Not sure how you could make that block diagram simpler, to describe a system with 8 power districts.EVERY system connects to the track the same way.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Realistically, is your layout big enough to need a booster? Will you run enough locomotives simultaneously?
My layout is a 5x12 foot table, and a 19-foot long shelf, with a balloon at one end to allow a loop there. Part of the layout has a subway system below it. There is a lot of track. By myself, I usually run 2 or 3 trains at a time, with some continuously running while I switch with others. I've got a Lenz System 100, which provides 5 amps. That is plenty of power for this layout.
I have divided the layout into sections protected by circuit breakers. Two sections are fairly large reverse loops, and my main yard is attached to one of the loops. So, I've got a total of 6 sections isolated by circuit breakers. This gives plenty of protection and separation for trouble shooting, but all of this is still driven by the single DCC system. I run a number of illuminated passenger cars, too, and never run short of power.
I'm not sure how much power your MRC PA has, but for most home layouts boosters are overkill.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks for the input and feedback, and all those other electronical bytes of wisdom!
I'll have to go over the layout plan and see where the best places are for districts to be cut in.