hdtvnutI respectfully disagree with you, having done an investigation of the EB-3 with BLI/QSI engines years back. The high capacitance these decoders present to the breaker causes high inrush current, and make it oscillate on/off with two or more engines in that block, depending on the exact circumstances. This can be improved by adding shunt resistance such as a car tail-light, but doing so partly negates the purpose of the breaker, which is to keep the average current, thus power, very low during a short condition. The PSX has a smart circuit that allows a high inrush, without resetting, long enough for the capacitors to charge. I can have at least six QSI-decoder-type engines on a PSX, and it will reset properly after a short. The EB-3/PM42 can't do this without a shunt, and the shunt means higher current and power at the short. If you don't operate multiple sound engines with keep-alive capacitors within a block, go for the cheap stuff, but don't tell me there's no difference. Hal
Who said anything about EB-3's?
I know the EB-3 will not handle sound locomotives.
I recommended the EB-1. Maybe you should pay more attention to what you are reading.
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.
A properly setup PM42 will reset after a short. We use PM42s at my club and have no issues with them.
Peter
I choose to go with the NCE EB-1 circuit breakers. They can handle sound locomotives and are cheaper in price than the PSX that everyone seems to rave about.
Our club also choose to go with the NCE breakers for the same reasons.
What you should do is look at the prices, then download the manuals for both breakers, PSX and NCE EB-1's, read them, and then choose the one that would work for your budget and DCC system.
I also use PSX circuit breakers. I have the 4-circuit-on-one-board variant. It seems to work very well. Most of my engines have sound.
I also use the older models of PSX auto-reversers. These auto-reversers are also circuit breakers, so you don't need to provide separate breaker protection for auto-reverse areas.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
If it's 4 or 5 sections the Digitrax PM42 should do the trick. It does 4 sectoins on 1 board.
Springfield PA
I am building an HO DCC layout. I think I would like to break the layout up into about 4 or 5 sections with seperate circuit breakers to avoid having the entire layout go down if a problem occurs. I would like suggestions/recommendations for circuit breakers to use.
thanks
wdcrvr