I recently installed an ammeter between my power pack and track. When I run my loco (Atlas Dash 8 - 40) the needle barely moves off 0. My question is this meter reading correctly and what should the correct reading be ?The loco has 15 cars hooked to it. Chuck Parker
That is probably because your meter is reading amps and you train uses miliamps which is way less. That is like using a big steam shovel to fill a kids wagon when a little hand shovel wil do. If you get a mileameter and hooked it up you should get the proper reading. [ 07. August 2002, 17:15: Message edited by: Telegrapher ]
Is the ammeter in series or parallel? (it should be in series) Note - N scale locos should draw less than one amp of current.
Dee Gilbert, the Customer Service and Repair guy at Kato, has a storehouse of knowledge on monitoring meter readings on N Scale equipment based on his current job (pun intended!) and his past ownership of a locomotive repair and remotoring service. Contact him at katousa.com for further information. Charlie
The amp. meter is telling you how much of a load you have on your motor, low amps = low load High amps = high load. It is also a way of figuring efficency of your loco, large load of cars and a low amp reading would mean high efficency.
Modern N-Scale engines draw much less current than engines of 10 or more years ago. I have 4 Kato F7's that draw about 0.25 Amps each, regardless of load, the Kato Mikes and Life-Like BL-2 draw about 0.15 Amps each, and the Con-Cor E7 draws about 0.10 Amps. However a Con-Cor J3 built in Europe during the early 70's draws almost 0.5 Amps when it feels like running. No modern engine designed and built after 1995 should be allowed to draw more than 0.3 Amps for more than a second or so. Micro-Mark offers a good 5-0-5 Ammeter. I only wish someone would offer a good 1-0-1 Ammeter.
I appreciate your answers, but I think this meter is a dud. It doesn't show any reading no matter how its wired or whether the train is reversed. Thanks again. Chuck Parker
Chuck, before you trash the meter, try these simple tests to verify that it is/is not working. Connect two copper wires, one to each of the meter terminal posts. Then very briefly tap(!) the free end of each lead to the opposite ends of a "D-Cell" (or similar) battery. Reverse battery ends and do it again. If the meter pointer bounces equally in both directions, then the meter movement is probably OK. If the pointer did not move in either or both directions, it's probably defective. Now, if the pointer did move equally ..... Wire the meter between the positive (+) terminal of your power supply and a single piece of track. Wire the negative (-) terminal directly to the opposite rail of that track and place a reliable engine on the track. The meter pointer should start to move as you increase power to the engine. The pointer should move in the opposite direction when you reverse the power supply and increase power. Keeping these tests simple will eliminate any wiring errors you might have in your power distribution system. Also it will hopefully save you from buying another meter unnecessarily. Good Luck [ 10. August 2002, 01:30: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
