As far as DCC goes. do you HAVE to use the ones made by Digitrax, NCE, etc. Or can you use one of these? http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-13-8vdc-15a-power-supply/2200508.html#.VJsfVF4Ag
Would 5 amps be enough for a 9x15 room layout powering 8 to 12 locomotives? Main track power. Also I will be venturing into dcc for the first time. I have 40 locos that need to be converted so I will need to run DC as well as DCC as I make the conversions.
5 amps should be plenty for the layout. You could use a 15 amp power supply but the booster will be the current limit. A 5 amp booster will not be using the other ten amps. That would just be wasted.
5 amps would probably be plenty for 8-12 locos N scale locos, assuming you're not going to stall them all at once.
So something like this would do fine. http://www.circuitspecialists.com/bench-power-supply-csi1862.html
Thats the .99$ question. Some DCC systems require a power supply with AC output while others require DC. brian
If your DCC system is a NCE Power Cab, you must use the recommended NCE P114 power supply. The power supply is part of the overload protection for the Power Cab. - Jeff
You would do good to Google DCC systems and read all the details and manuals online. asking a question or two hear is ok but to do real research, Google it.NCE, Digitrax, Lenz, MRC are examples. Forget Bachmann. Google SoundTraxx, TCS, lokSound, They sell N scale decoders. one or two sell a DCC system that can be powered with AC or DC. the system has a full wave bridge rectifier that passes DC or changes AC to DC. Again, do some real research. the Internet is like going to a library. I learned to go to a library back in 1956 to look at the Model railroader magazines and learned a lot about model railroading as a kid. Rich
Best if you look for this in " how to ". The lower the number the fatter the wire. I'll say this: You have hypothetically, 2 wires, 25 yards long X 3 ' in diameter solid copper. One will be plus, the other, minus (+ -). At one end you solder on the 2 leads from your say, NCE throttle panel to the 2 gargantuan wires. At other end you solder on 2 wires to go to the rails. You raise throttle to roll the engine. What do you think will happen ? Nothing...because 12V electrons have no resistance to raise amperage (punch) enough to come out other end and instead just meander around in the 'wires'. If you instead have two wires the diameter of a human hair, they'll get hot and melt as amperage is now very high, too little space to conduct the quadrillion copper electrons to other end. I believe you'll need No. 20-22...18 works but is usually too thick to bend and to solder on to say, toggle switch posts, structure bulbs, macros or rail web. ....Sump'n like dat ...
There is no polite way to say this: The information in the post quoted above is entirely WRONG. There is no such thing as bus wires being too large. Large conductors have low resistance, something that is always desireable. Electrons will not "meander around" in a large conductor. Instead they will flow freely to their destination (your track and your locos). The only useful information in the post above is that it can be somewhat diffcult to connect large-diameter wires to small toggle switches. Even that is easily solved by soldering a short length of smaller wire to the large wire and then connecting the smaller wire to the switch. Although the "gargantuan" wires described above would be physically difficult to manage, electrically they would work beautifully! - Jeff
Lower number means larger wire is correct too, but the physical properties of electricity certainly leaves a lot to be desired.
You are correct; my apology. The lower the wire gauge number, the larger the diameter of the wire. - Jeff
