I have a question

For those of u that don't know, I have started a new layout. I figured I probably will be having some electrical issues. I use an NCE power cab DCC system. How will I measure how much electricity is flowing through the rails?
BTW:klrwizkid thanks for the switches. They came in handy because the box of track I got didn't have many.

 

Eathan:
First question, Do you own a multimeter? If you do are you experienced with it? If you do own one and are experienced with it you will want to set the meter on AC amps. If the meter has a 10 amp setting you will want to use it. I believe your system is capable of 2.5 to 3 amps. I am not positive of this. You will be measuring current flow. The first thing you will want to do is disconnect one side of your track power from your command station/booster. Next you will want to put the red lead of your amp meter to the wire that goes to the track and then hook the black lead of your meter back to where you disconnected from yourcommand station/booster. The meter if correclty hooked up should deflect the meter to the right or if it is a digital meter read between 0-3 amps. I would try this with one loco on the layout and then add locomotives (they should be running) until you get to about 2.25 amps. This will be a base line for you to know how many locos you can safely run. If you want to do more you will need to add another booster and section off your layout. The readings you will be reading will only be ballpark figures because your meter is not intended for DCC but it will read and this is all you should be concerned with at the present time. If you want to be exact you can buy a DCC meter that will do this for you. What I have just told you is very basic and all you should need for now.
Bob Wintle MMR.

 

I do have a multimeter, not sure if it has an AC amps setting. And the Power Cab is a 2 amp system. One guy I talked to at the hobby show in joplin (hobby world) he said that he can run 4 sound equipped locos with it.

 

Eathan:
Take a picture of your meter and post it on here I will try to help you through this. The problem with running 4 sound equipped locos on your system at one time would be at start up and the in rush of current it takes to start the sound units. At 2 Amps you would really be putting a strain on your system.
I have several sound units on my layout at the present time. I started having a problem restarting the layout after a derailment (short) and was having to go to the command station and reset it each time manually. I thought I was having problems with the command station. What I finally figured out was that one of my older BLI sound equipped locos was taking too much current to restart. When I removed it from the rails everything went back to normal. I am going to have to add another booster to my layout or just not use as many sound equipped locos. I suggest that If you do get 4 sound equipped locos on your layout that you never run more than 2 or better yet 1 at the same time on your layout. Wire yourself a track where you can throw a toggle switch to turn power off of that track and park your other sound locos there.
As Dennis Miller always says "Hey thats just my opinion I could be wrong"
El Bob Oh

 

Thanks Bob. I have no clue when I will have a sound equipped loco.

PS it's spelled Ethan not Eathan.

 

I talked to my dad and he said he had a voltmeter that has a AC AMP 10 setting. Sometimes it comes in handy to live on the farm.

 

Ethan:

Although my Digitrax Zephyr puts out more amps than your NCE, I have no trouble powering my entire layout (approx 50' mainline run) through one set of track connectors. Two amps should power 4 non-sound units with no problem.

The solution to the problem of sound equipped locos sucking up all your amps at start-up is to program them so that they only recieve the DCC signal when you set their address in your NCE hand held.

You obviously have a computer (duh...), have you considered Decoder Pro to help you with your DCC programming? If not, try it, it's free and it works.

Glenn in Tulsa

 

Good information all. Now for some help from the experts (not me).

I would like a confirmation or correction on some information I have been told by some regarding the amps required to run a locomotive. I have been told that the average non sound equipped locomotive requires about 0.1-0.2 amps vs a sound equipped engine needing about 1.5 amps. Is this true or close to true?

Given those rough amp values, one can easily add up the number of sound equipped or non sound equipped engines in a block and determine if trouble is brewing.

I have my railroad divided into 5 amp blocks which would take a lot of non sound equipped engines before shutting down. I only have one sound unit now so the approx 1.5 amps it may draw will fit easily in any power block. Any more than two sound equipped engines in a block will likely cause problems unless I am looking at it wrong. I have future plans to increase my block power to 8 amps but that would only allow 1-2 more sound units per block. However, four sound units in a block seems like enough or more than enough. . . . . .

OK electronics guys help us out.

Thanks.

Ship IT on the Frisco !

Rick

 

Rick:
The answer to you question is, "It Depends". How much current a locomotive pulls depends on may things. For one is it just sitting ther idleing or is it pull a load. Do you have a lot of lighting functions and are they turned on. Is the motor a good can motor type or an old blue box Athearn type. You can see for yourself what a locomotuve pulls under load by doing a simple stall test. Hook your amp meter up to a small test track and just allow the locomotive to idle, then turn the throttle up and watch the meter as the loco goes down the track. It should increase amperage pull. Now turn the loco speed up and hold your hand on the loco until it stalls. This should show a larger amperage pull. I have done this and seen anywhere from 1 to 2 amps on an Athearn and .2 to .5 on an Atlas or Kato locomotive. Your results can vary. I doubt anyone will have problems unless they start running a lot of sound units. By the way In rush current can vary wildly on different sound units and can be several Amps. I learned a valuable lesson on this in the past couple of weeks.
Bob

 

Thanks for all the info. But I'm not sure when I'll be getting sound in anything. I have the money for it, but dad thought the idea was to expensive. Sigh, maybe I'll find a christmas special in a few months.

 

Ok, I looked at my volt meter and it had something that was questionable. It has a setting that says 10 then it has a line with 3 dots under it. Also there is 2 plugs for the positive (red) wire tester. 1 with the symbols for V, Om meter, m, A. The 2nd one says 10A DC. Would I need the setting listed above and the red plugged into the 10A DC to test DCC power?

 

Ethan:
The symbol with the straight line with 3 dots underneath it is for DC. You will want to use the AC setting to get the closest reading you will be able to get with your meter. Your meter may not read in the 10 Amp AC range. Ac is the squigilly symbol. I would have to see it to tell you for sure. The jacks you will want to use (where you plug your test leeds into) will be the COM (for the black wire) and the one marked A ( for the red wire. You will want to remove only one wire from your layout and place your meter in series with this wire. I suggest the black lead of your test meter to the wire you remove from the layout and the red wire to your layout.
As Mark always says, "I hope this helps".
El Bob O

 

When I get the chance I will upload pics of the tester.