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…................... .--- Boosters & Circuit Breakers Pt. 1 ---

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I'm dividing the layout into 8 power districts. I'm using a DCC-EX Command Station and so far love it. For under $100 I feel it is a great value and comparable in many ways to commercial command stations and gaining new features all the time. I can't see myself ever outgrowing it. If you are interested in how easy it is to build a very powerful command station that also has WiFi for phone and other throttles check it out ( HERE ) and ( HERE ).

I've seen articles on building boosters and circuit breakers and even bought the parts to build a booster buy after researching them more decide to go commercial for them. I also was impressed with Tam Valley's products after reading other modelers posts and they are very reasonably priced so decided on using their boosters and circuit breakers along with their frog juicers. I won't be using the frog juicers for turnouts as my switch machines and controllers can power the frogs. I'll be using them for reversing loops/sections and the frogs on crossings. You can to some degree mix and match some of these components from different manufactures but I want to stay with one manufacture to avoid potential problems doing that.

If you are joining the build here the layout is 24.5 ft. x 6 ft. so fairly large. To handle the track current I might need running trains and to help troubleshoot shorts and/or other problems I didn't want the layout to be one huge power district. I've decide on 8 power districts. The boosters receive the DCC signal from the DCC-EX Command Station (it no longer powers the track). Each of the four boosters is powered by a separate 12 volt/5 amp power supply (cost $12-$15 each). I have individual power switches that plug into the two common power strips with surge protection. With those switches I can easily cut the power to any individual booster. Normally they will be on and the layout power will be controlled by the main power strip (seen with a red light on it further below).

Each booster will have two circuit breakers attached to it and each will protect one power district. You can use a Tam Valley booster on a layout to boost the DCC power and it will also act as a circuit breaker. So if you have a smaller layout but still want a booster just get the booster and it will boost the power and protect the layout from shorts. Also you can put more than two circuit breakers on a booster so lots of options depending on your situation. One final comment, you can also use the booster for your DCC accessories if you have any such as stationary decoders on turnouts. Useing one for this takes that current demand off your command station and if there is a short on a track the accessories can still receive commands from the command station (as long as you are using a separate booster for track power also). A short on either power district won't shut down the command station.

So on to making panels for the four boosters and eight circuit breakers.............

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If you came into the build here you can find the main index for the build ( HERE ).

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