I’ve gone through a fair share of them already. This new roadbed has fixed a lot of issues already.
I think I will go with the meter box or circuit box route for the receiver. I just need something that will keep the receiver dry and makes it so I don’t have to keep taking it up/down the stairs whenever I want to run. If I can make the Ultima fit, even better.
Sean McGillicuddy said:
On my two units I use this wire from the TE unit to the track…
some put an inline fuse as well .My units are in an old metal meter cabinet …
another idea is the sealed boxes for camera equipment, I found one on sale for an obsolete gopro camera and it works fine.
Walmart has good fuse prices, better than auto supply shops and from amazon prime I got fuses in 10 packs for really low $$$$
25 of the 10 amp fuses for $5.90 on Amazon Prime plus free delivery!!
Bill Sakalaucks said:
The Ace store near me has them on hand. I don’t mind replacing them as it‘s a relatively easy part to get to.
Sean McGillicuddy said:
Hint : make sure you get a good supply of these
Or, get one of these and the first time you pop the fuse, scrape away some of the plastic and solder this to it (in 10 amps of course). That’s what I did for my three TEs. Real quick and easy to reset, never “looking” for one, and cheap too. You may even be able to find one with the same pin spacing/size as the fuses.
A circuit breaker is not a fuse. There is a time factor in how long it takes the fuse to blow vs the circuit breaker to open.
I do not know if this makes a big difference but it may if something is in warranty which the TE no longer would have.
I’ve only used them for 15+ years and they’ve always functioned as designed. Sure, I’ve had derailments and burned out the small traces on circuit boards in engines, but it doesn’t take anywhere near 10 amps to do that and it happened as much with fuses as it did breakers. If one were concerned, about any differences, one could always get a bit smaller breaker, if you can find it.
When I burn a trace, I put polyfuses in the engine when repairing it to avoid this happening again. It is easy to tell when a polyfuse opens and doesn’t require a short to open it…, dirty track can do it and my U-boat track cleaner with added polyfuses does this quite often.
If one never used more than two engines and some lighting at a time, a 5 amp breaker (or fuse) may be the better choice and may save some of those traces.
I went and got a 60a hot tub box to store the receiver in. Gutted the electrical components and the dang thing fits fine.
Don’t know what others use but, we have use these for over 10 years or so on all of our TM’s. We use the 5 and 8 Amp reset able Breaker by soldering a small formed Copper wire to spades off of old used 10 amp fuse. That way they just plug in to the Fuse slot.
There on E-Bay
Least it will save your receivers and and we found out that they work almost just as fast as a Fuse for us.
Just an idea. (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)
You can look up the specs on the circuit breaker and that for a fuse.
In the case of a fuse, it is heat that melts the “link” and how quick it blows is dependent on the current.
A breaker often trips once over a threshold.
Properly rated, it’s my experience that a circuit breaker trips sooner and more repeatably than a fuse.
(of course a completely solid state breaker circuit is even better, like I have in my DCC system. There are also smart, microprocessor driven circuit breakers for trains like the DCC specialities stuff)
Greg
Todd Brody said:
I’ve only used them for 15+ years and they’ve always functioned as designed. Sure, I’ve had derailments and burned out the small traces on circuit boards in engines, but it doesn’t take anywhere near 10 amps to do that and it happened as much with fuses as it did breakers. If one were concerned, about any differences, one could always get a bit smaller breaker, if you can find it.
When I burn a trace, I put polyfuses in the engine when repairing it to avoid this happening again. It is easy to tell when a polyfuse opens and doesn’t require a short to open it…, dirty track can do it and my U-boat track cleaner with added polyfuses does this quite often.
If one never used more than two engines and some lighting at a time, a 5 amp breaker (or fuse) may be the better choice and may save some of those traces.
My TE has the fuse it came with from the factory. My MRC power supply has an automatic cutoff somewhere around 5 amps. The only time it trips is when I have a derailment, or it the track and ballast are very wet (leakage current through the wet ballast). I run 2 trains at a time, with sound (if they have sound) and smoke (if they have smoke). I don’t usually see more then 3 or 3.5 amps on the ammeter with 2 trains.
I only see mention here of the 10 amp fuse mounted in the TE RX unit itself. I have always assumed that was only to protect the TE RX from a power supply overload (If you have the Crest 55465 20 amp unit that might be a consideration).
Supplied NIB with my Crest TE RX was also a separate cartridge type 10 amp fuse, that was mounted in a clear spring loaded holder, in-line from the RX’s output to the track. I have always assumed this was to protect the TE RX from any overloads emanating from the track. Never blown the red 10 amp fuse on the RX itself but I’ve blown a couple of the ones protecting it from the trackside with derailments and a 45mm long nail that found its way onto the line from a neighbour’s fencing job.
Just thought I’d mention it if anybody had thought of deleting this feature or bought 2nd hand where a previous owner had not kept it in place.
The inline fuses come in different versions, slow blow (not good for trains), fast blow. Fast blow have a spring to make them open faster.
Actually, the spring normally indicates a slow blow fuse, the spring has some resistance, but adds to the thermal mass of the fuse itself, thus handling surges without blowing, but when finally heated “enough” pulls it apart.
Having a spring usually guarantees a slow blow, but not all slow blow fuses have a spring. You cannot go by the width of the link since it has to vary according to the amps.
The best thing is to look on the ends of the fuse itself to see the markings and look it up.
Greg
Good Lord …with all this advice does anyone have any videos or possibly a vignette of THEIR TRAINS RUNNING which in turn “Blew the FUSE”
Steve,
Rod Stewart models HO
" Rooster " said:
Good Lord …with all this advice does anyone have any videos or possibly a vignette of THEIR TRAINS RUNNING which in turn “Blew the FUSE”
…
Yup…Son …We have. laf. See time line 1:51. Michael Glavin was running his Train Batt. powered and I had track power to one of my Trains. He ran over a snail and he shorted out my trains by shorting out our TlM’s Rec. fuse. Ever try to replace or just find the fuse slots in the dark?
“Added to next post.”
P.S. Thanks Joe Z.
Nice Video. 