lifeontheranch You have to admit they look cool.
You have to admit they look cool.
Yes they do.
lifeontheranchYou have to admit they look cool.
At least as cool as a tachometer in a car with an automatic transmission.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
hon30critter Mark R. DO NOT FEED THIS TROLL. Maybe we should all send personal messages to Steven Otte to bring this guy to his attention. Dave
Mark R. DO NOT FEED THIS TROLL.
Maybe we should all send personal messages to Steven Otte to bring this guy to his attention.
Dave
Please don't. As I like to say, "People have a right to be wrong." It's not my job to vet every post for usefulness and accuracy. Ignore him if you can, correct him if you like, argue with him if you must, but calling another user a "troll" or the like counts as a personal attack. So if anyone gets punished from this thread, it will be the ones calling for admin action against a user who has not actually broken any rules.
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
Punish me if you will. Based on past experiences, I stand by my statement.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Personally, I've never cared for the word "troll" as it is often used on forums. I think "muckraker" is a much more appropriate moniker.
I'ved been involved with this forum for going on 14 years. It never ceases to amaze me how a new members first post(s) are complaints, or "versus", or trying to bully their beliefs and preferences to others.
Many of the other forums I belong to (i.e. F150, Smith-Wesson, Ford, APS, etc.) put newbies on a probation period wherein their posts are seriously reviewed to assue the "applicant" is sincere and not looking to "rake muck"..........
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
They do here as well - that's why you see posts suddenly appear BELOW oens you already read, and you know it wasn't there the day before. That's a newbie posting with moderated status and one of the mods releasing the post.
See this person's first thread - first couple of posts (to get past the moderation period) were fairly reasonable. Only after he could post freely did it really go off the rails (no offense to Gerry Leone, his antics are MUCH more enjoyable, plus you actually learn a thing or two).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
This is a long thread and if I missed something, please forgive, if not please answer. The question is NOT about DCC voltage, but measuring the current draw from the booster. Can you use a standard 0-5 amp ammeter (not voltmeter, not multimeter, just a plain old ammeter) to measure DCC current coming out of the booster and being used by the track? I am well aware of the difference between resistance (ohms) current (amps), volts, sine wave volts, square wave volts, ohms law and kirchoff's laws and I already have a fluke multimeter, harbor freight junk-o-meters and a RRamp meter. I just want to know if a plain jane every day panel mounted ten dollar ammeter will work or not.
B. BryceCan you use a standard 0-5 amp ammeter to measure DCC current coming out of the booster and being used by the track?
the current between the booster and track is also alternating.
you could measure the current between the power supply and booster. that would include current consumed by the booster circuitry itself which would be indicated without any track connection.
greg - Philadelphia & Reading / Reading
I'm reading that AC or DC ammeters under 20-30 amps all will work the same. Only measuring 2-5 amps being used by the track max using an ammeter of 0-10 amp max range. My fluke doesn't have seperate selectors for AC or DC amps or milliamps, just milliamps. Also curious how much power the ammeter itself will draw, if it is a concern or negligable at this level of current draw.
My Power Cab shows current very nicely.
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.
Mine does as well, but only if you are using it as a stand alone 2 amp Power Cab, since the Power Cab is also the power supply. I believe that once you install a booster, the Power Cab will not show the amps any longer as the Power Cab is no longer the power supply, only the controller, at least mine does not unless I am not using the SB5 booster, just the Power Cab.
I just want to know how close I am to needing to install another 5 amp booster to my system before I overload the 5 amp SB5 booster.
Some years ago I built two five amp DCC amp meters using the below circuit. Cost about fifteen dollars some years ago.
http://www.circuitous.ca/DCCammeter10.html
I used a high amp rheostat to test it.
The club NCE five amp Power Pro tripped at about 4.97 amps and it used a Harbor Freight multimeter on the 20ma DC scale as one option.
I used a red LED volt meter option so the club could see it from anywhere.
A tree terminal device does the conversion.
This guy post circuits after testing them.
You can also buy a RRampmeter. More expensive. Google it.
In the high current modes (like the 10 amp range), the 'load' of a multimeter is negligible (possibly not for some super cheapy version). Current is measured as the voltage drop across a calibrated shunt resistor. It's when measuring low power devices that the effect of this voltage drop becomes noticeable. There are special low current devices and multimeters with such circuitry built in. This voltage drop is called the burden voltage.
For track power levels - not an issue.