Thanks Randy and Rich.
Give to know about the amps. I thought the Zephyr would only pull 3.6 tops, regardless of the current potential out of the boost converter.
Good advice about the plastic box and fuse. Not coincidentally, I have two such rigs laying around for remote astrophotography. Just have to pick up the proper boost converter and a small inline fuse and I'm good.
Rich, I guess I'm not sure what exactly a universal power supply is. I looked at Amazon, but only really inverters. Which I did consider, but going from DC battery to ac just for the Zephyr's ac-dc power cord seemed... inelegant and wasteful. I use SLA batts for my telescope/remote laptop setups, so I don't mind liquid batts. They're just heavy!
Thanks again guys. In fairness, I probably won't actually attempt this... just a hunch that it'd probably void any warranty on the Zephyr if I have an issue (although I doubt my purchase warranty is good any more anyway).
How about a UPS that can supply 120 VAC? They can be bought for about $100 or less from Amazon. Just need to calculate how many VA you need.
I would consider a lithium battery if you want a battery power. No liquid.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Amps aren't "put out" by a power supply, it is a rating for the MOST you can draw. So the 5 amp version shouldbe just about perfect for the Zephyr. The Zephyr will only draw a maximum of 3.6 amps, the convertor won't shove 5 amps into it and fry anything.
Anything using a car battery - you need fuses. A car battery can supply enough instantaneous current to literally weld metal across the terminals if you short it. You need a fuse between the battery and converter at the very least - a 5 amp fuse should be good (or resettable circuit breaker). This will protect the converter and the battery (which you should carry in one of the plastic carriers meant for it - often used to house the battery on a bass boat for the electric trolling motor). Ideally, a fuse of 3.6 amps should be on the output of the converter before the Zephyr, but you are probably ok without that one.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hi all, my apologies if this has been answered before.
In addition to my main layout, I have a small 2 ft x 4 ft N gauge traveling layout that I take to trains shows, mostly as some "flash" to bring people in the look at the for-sale trees. I've wired it for DCC, and use my Digitrax Zephyr Xtra to run it.
My only issue is that most of the time, getting a table with a standard electrical outlet is much too expensive for my needs. So I've been researching a remote power option, similar to what I use for remote telescope operations: 12V auto or motorcycle battery, and a DC-DC converter to get the proper volts.
In the case of the Zephyr's power supply, it looks like I need a 12V-13.8V converter that carries at least 3.6 amps. Easy peasy, I can find those on Amazon in the $30-40 range.
What I'm having trouble is finding a DC boost converter that puts out the same 3.6 amps as the Zephyr Xtra power supply. Plenty of 5 amp, 15 amp, 25 amp, etc, however.
So, can I just run a resistor in parallel to drop the amps to 3.6? If so, I assume I should look for an equivalent sized plug as the male end of the Zephyr power supply; any one know what size that might be?