I was curious as to whether anyone on this board had built or used any of these handheld home-brew throttles that hook up to the Digitrax Zephyr's JUMP port. I am thinking of building two so that guests or my kids can run trains with me. The soldering and such doesn't bother me at all. I mostly just want a review or any suggested alterations or upgrades if anyone has built them. Also, if someone knows a lower cost way to get an AC adapter than the specified Radio Shack one I am all ears. That adapter is going for a little over 20 bucks a pop. Youch! thanks, Adam
I haven't built one but there are some simpler home made jump throttle plans. Plans can be found in the Yahoo Digitrax Group's files section under "Zephyr". The simplest one consists of a 9 volt battery, SPST on/off switch, 100kohm lienar pot, and DPDT reversing switch. Can't get much simpler. You could substitute a 9 - 12 volt DC wall wart for the battery if you have an old one laying around. The jump ports just see differences in voltage which it interprets as speed changes. Polarity change determines forward or reverse. Martin Myers
I found a transformer that outputs 9V AC 300mA. Go to http://www.jameco.com, and search for part number: 210729. I haven't built the item myself (yet), I simply found an item that matched the specs (IIRC). ---jjps
