Oh wise Trainboard members... I have a hollow core door layout; switching mostly, a wye for turning locos, a staging yard, and in the future hope to add on some more. I currently have: (1) DB150 from an Empire Builder set,(1) DCS100 from a Chief set, (1) DB100+, and I operate with DT100IR throttles(x3). I also have (1) DT100. I have books for all boosters, so it's just a matter of learning a particular method. Which booster should I use for my primary command station? I have not been able to find in my research which one is "strongest". I plan to use another booster for auto-reversing(in order to NOT spend more $) and may need to split power districts with the remaining booster if I expand. Help please!
Disclaimer: I don't have any of those parts you mentioned; Hopefully someone who does will reply later, but in case they don't, here's my attempt to be helpful. If by strongest, you just mean amperage, it should be printed on the booster near the power input. Usually something like "Input: 15Vac, 5A", or alternatively it might state the number of watts. Code: Watts / Volts = Amps And most DC systems are 15Vac input, 11-14V output (depends on scale) If all else fails, and it plugs straight into the wall, the rating on the fuse can probably give you a ball-park figure. For example: a 0.5A fuse at 110V is 55W. assuming no transformer loss (hah!), at 15V that's 3.6A. Code: 0.5 *110 / 15 (7.3 * fuse rating in amps) Most systems have a bigger fuse than they need, to reduce the chances of blowing the fuse when you turn the power on; so use this estimate with a handful of salt. A bigger consideration than amperage, if you want to use a booster to control a reversing section is which booster supports 'Auto-reverse'. Not all of them do, and I recommend against using your Command station for this Check the manuals for 'Auto-reverse' (I believe for Digitrax they have DIP switches or jumpers to select Auto-reverse mode or normal mode?) If all your boosters support Auto-reverse, then you're fine with picking any of them; but if only one does, then obviously that one gets the reversing section, and you want to pick the strongest of the remainder. Good luck, and hope this help until someone more with more domain knowledge can reply
Take a look at www.hotrak.ca. That's my local modular club, and we operate with Digitrax components. There's a page there somewhere that shows how we set up multiple units (and which ones are the reversers). I know there's a combination of Empire and Chief sets at most meets. EDIT - click "Standards" and then "Setting up the DCC" Andrew
I use the DCS 100 as the primary command controller and the DB 150 as for lack of a better word a slave unit. The digitrax manuals show how these need to be configured to work properly. According to what I understand both units are 5 amps.
