14-20 Vdc

[Anonymous]

Hi, everyone I bought a DCC, it states I must use 14-20 vdc to make It work.
I cannot find one, Help.

Paul Draegert
PaulD

• Reply
• Edit

[Javern]

most train power packs can do that or Radio Shack sells power supplies

[Adelie]

Which DCC setup, what scale are you using, and how many amps go along with those 14-20 VDC?

[Anonymous]

I thought dcc was supposed to be ran with AC rather than DC. Anyone know?

[grayfox1119]

I would advise you to get a book on DCC, Kalmbach has one, your local hobby store has them, Amazon.com has them, and, there is a host of excellent DCC articles on the web, just type in DCC.
Never go in to anything blind, read up on what you are going to buy or use first. Tony's has a great section on DCC also at WWW.tonystrains.com

[Adelie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by TedADavis

I thought dcc was supposed to be ran with AC rather than DC. Anyone know?

I can only speak for Digitrax, which will accept AC or DC input. What is ships out is AC.

[MisterBeasley]

My Lenz-100 uses AC for the input. I'm getting that from an ancient Lionel transformer.

[rrinker]

Some systems like Digitrax have diodes on the input, so they can handle either AC or DC input - the PS-15 is 15VAC, the PS-2012 is a DC supply. AC is the usual standard for all systems though - which one is this that wants 14-20 VDC?
Radio Shack does not really have suitable power supplies for DCC. I believe the top two models of their 'car' power supplies are REGULATED 13.8 volts, but that's a bit low. And I would NOT use one of their unregulated 13.8 volt supplies, trac voltage will probaby vary too much. The supplies work great for their intended use, which is powering car equipment from AC power, because car equipments is designed to cope with rather widely varying voltage conditions.
Probably the best deal in prepacked ready to go 5 amp DCC power supplies is the one NCE sells. You should be able to get it for under $30, much less thant he Digitrax one which is the exact same thing, and far cheaper even than the DIY kits from Loy's and others.

--Randy

[steffd]

Bellow is a link to a supplier of reasonably priced Power supplies Specifically designed for DCC applications and suitable for many of the various Digital system manufacturers.

http://www.dccspecialties.com/products/mf615.htm

Stephan

[Anonymous]

The mf615 is what i am using on my n scale layout with a Lenz Set 100. I got it from www.tonystrains.com .

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrinker
I would NOT use one of their unregulated 13.8 volt supplies, trac voltage will probaby vary too much.

Are you sure about that? I believe that the DCC power units regulate the voltage themselves. I haven't read other brands manuals but a Lenz (lLZV100 & LV101s) allows the track voltage to be set independent from the input voltage. Our club uses use Digitrax PS515 power supplies but track voltage is set to 17.5 V. At home, using the same Digitrax PS515 power supply, I've got track voltage set to 14.5 V.

[rrinker]

That's the case witht he better systems but not the case with the Lenz Compact/Atlas Commander - the default recommended power supply generates way too higha voltage at the track, especially for smaller scales. Using a lower voltage transformer results in lower track voltage. Not sure exactly how it ties in since the input supply should only be used to power what is essentially a square wave generator - the input power should not in any case pass through.
However - you can't get 15v out if you only put 13v in. Remember the supplies I mentioned are 13.8 V DC - there's no bump from rectification, PLUS there's (at least with Digitrax) another 1.2V drop from the bridge rectifier on the input. So 13.8 VDC just isn't enough- it MIGHT make it if you want 12V at the track, but there's little headroom.
Likewise, it's not a good idea feeding 20+ V in to the booster when you only want 14.5V out. The excess is simply dissipated as heat, effectively lowering the load capacity of the booster.

--Randy