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Power Supply for Walthers 110’ Turntable

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  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 12:45 PM

Redvdub1
I'm a little confused about the "or" statement in your post.

The OP was quoting directly from the instructions

https://www.walthers.com/fileuploader/download/download/?d=0&file=attachments%2F09330000002859.pdf

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    December 2012
  • 157 posts
Posted by Redvdub1 on Wednesday, April 1, 2020 12:39 PM

I'm a little confused about the "or" statement in your post.  My club's Walther's 130' TT requires a 16V AC input to drive the TT motor and a separate input (either DC or DCC) to provide track power to the TT bridge.  We use an MRC TechII 2500 to provide a 16V AC voltage which is then voltage regulated by the Walther's control module to 14.5V AC which is then full-wave rectified (also in the control module).  We chose to tap the DCC power off of our layout track to power up the TT bridge track. We are considering using a DCC command station to power up the bridge track to avoid shorting issues as much as possible.

hope this helps.    

 

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
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Posted by richhotrain on Monday, March 30, 2020 7:11 AM

gdelmoro
richhotrain

My Walthers 130' turntable is powered by an MRC 1370 Railpower which puts out 18 VDC. Works like a charm.

Rich 

thanks Rich, that's what i did.  

Years ago, back in 2004 when I first got into HO scale, the guys at my LHS recommended the MRC 1370 Railpower for providing DC power to light up LEDs on my DCC layout. Since then, I have added a total of 7 of them around my layout, powering everything from the TT to trackside signals to crossing gate signals to control panels.

What I like most about the MRC 1370 is the adjustable voltage by rotating the big dial from 1 to 18 VDC.  If resistored LEDs are still too bright, instead of adding more resistors, just dial down the voltage output on the MRC 1370.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • From: Moneta, VA USA
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Posted by gdelmoro on Monday, March 30, 2020 6:34 AM

richhotrain

My Walthers 130' turntable is powered by an MRC 1370 Railpower which puts out 18 VDC. Works like a charm.

Rich

 

thanks Rich, that's hat i did. 

Gary

  • Member since
    November 2005
  • From: St. Paul
  • 823 posts
Posted by garya on Saturday, March 28, 2020 9:02 PM

gdelmoro

Looking for a power supply that meets Walthers specs or the 110' turntable with DCC

"TT Control Power 12-18 VAC or 16-24 VDC 250 ma"

Why couldn't they make it a standard 12vDc? I have a bunch of those!

Did a Google search but cant find one that has the required voltage and 250mA

 

Most doorbell transformers are 18vac.  You could wire one up and use that.  Or there are all sorts of wall wart type transformers that you can find that can work.

Gary

  • Member since
    June 2004
  • From: From Golden, CO living in Puyallup (Seattle), WA
  • 751 posts
Posted by Renegade1c on Friday, March 27, 2020 7:50 PM

The most likely reason it requires a higher voltage on DC is that it most likely has a full wave bridge rectifier in their controller. This is why it can operate either AC or DC. A bridge rectifier is essentially 4 diodes and typical voltage drop across a diode is about 1.5 volts. So to get the necessary 12 volts you would need a minimum of 13.5 volts VDC input. My guess is that they designed their circuitry to run on the standard 12VDC but wanted the AC option later so they dropped in the bridge rectifier. Its easier the change a spec sheet than to revise a circuit board. I wouldn't be surprised though if the circuitry actually steps down and runs at 5v (internal to the board) as most solid state IC's are designed to run at 5v or 3.3v.

Amazon sells all kinds of power supplies. You need one that has a minimum of 250 mA. Going higher on current is ok because it will only pull what it needs. 

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=16+vdc+powersupply&ref=nb_sb_noss Here is a quick search that will give you several choices. 


Colorado Front Range Railroad: 
http://www.coloradofrontrangerr.com/

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  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Friday, March 27, 2020 3:22 PM

My Walthers 130' turntable is powered by an MRC 1370 Railpower which puts out 18 VDC. Works like a charm.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Friday, March 27, 2020 2:53 PM

Are more amps a problem for this application?  The motor draws amps, the power supply does not force extra amps down it's throat.

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • From: Moneta, VA USA
  • 1,175 posts
Power Supply for Walthers 110’ Turntable
Posted by gdelmoro on Friday, March 27, 2020 1:15 PM

Looking for a power supply that meets Walthers specs or the 110' turntable with DCC

"TT Control Power 12-18 VAC or 16-24 VDC 250 ma"

Why couldn't they make it a standard 12vDc? I have a bunch of those!

Did a Google search but cant find one that has the required voltage and 250mA

Gary

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