Subject:
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Re: Basic Train Electrical Questions
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Sat, 14 Dec 2002 01:01:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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564 times
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Frank Filz wrote:
> Do we have the answers to these in the FAQs? This question comes up
> alot...
Might add these indeed....
> Jan-Albert van Ree wrote:
> > 2 is the max with the default powersupply.
> Hmm, I haven't done pull tests, but we've successefully run at least 4
> motors on a single controller without overheating.
But they will run slower than normal and with less power. Which isn't
surprising since the 7VA limit is quite low. One motor uses 250 mA
according to LEGO Train depot website. Two motors = 0.5 Amps => 4.5VA on
track. With more than 2 motors the track voltage starts dropping a lot,
probably because the limits of the wall wart output it reached.
> > > Can you hook up more than 1 controller to a track for added power without
> > > harming the engines?
> >
> > Won't harm the engines, but possibly damages the controllers. Not
> > recommended. Better is to replace the wall outlet power supply by a
> > heavier one, the controller can handle a larger amount of current. That
> > way up to 4 train engines can be powered.
> I'm not sure using a larger wall wart gets you much, but I'm not
> familiar with all the guts. I'm guessing that the overload protection is
> current based though, which means a larger wall wart doesn't help.
http://hot.ee/sonnich/lego/9vcontroller.htm is the layout for the
regular type. He describes a few things on how to get more power.
We (Klaas Meijaard and me) found some very nice wall wart replacements
which output 2* 11VA. With 11VA (at little over 11V AC), 4 motor blocks
on a track without slowdowns was possible. With the default, any more
than two and we saw slowdowns.
> Connecting the outputs of two controllers has almost no risk. A real
> power supply (idealized as a constant voltage supply) always has
> resistance in series with the power supply. This resistance means you
> never have a real short. Besides, if too much current started to flow
> (because you had the two controllers set to opposite extremes of the
> output range), the overflow protection would kick in.
While not a real short, it's still not healthy and might still cause
damage to the chip inside (the 317 voltage regulator, which isn't too
sturdy)
--
Jan-Albert "Anvil" van Ree | http://www.vanree.net/~javanree/
VanReeDotNet IT Solutions | http://www.vanree.net
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Basic Train Electrical Questions
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| Do we have the answers to these in the FAQs? This question comes up alot... (...) Hmm, I haven't done pull tests, but we've successefully run at least 4 motors on a single controller without overheating. (...) I'm not sure using a larger wall wart (...) (22 years ago, 14-Dec-02, to lugnet.trains)
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