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In the
past, Digitrax has recommended not using more than one booster per power
supply. They now say that is OK as long as you fuse the power to each
booster at that booster's maximum limit. How many boosters you can run
from one power supply depends on how much total current your layout
uses from the track. For example, if your layout uses a total of less
than 276 watts, you can put as many boosters on this power supply as
you want. However, if your layout draws more than 276 watts, you'll
have to split it between two or more of these power supplies.
For N scale, it's likely one of these
power supply will handle all your train running needs - being able to
run close to 100 locos at once. Even with HO scale, the limit would
be somewhere around 60 or more. G scale is where you'll probably get
into needing more than one of these for the system. Considering that
some locos can draw up to 3 amps each when running, it wouldn't take
too many to exceed the 276-watt limitation of this power supply.
For G scale, you'll be using 8-amp
boosters. But that doesn't mean that you'll have to have one PS2012
per booster, even though two 8-amp boosters running at full capacity
will exceed the power supply's limit of 12 amps in the G-Scale setting.
It's the same thing as running more than 3 5-amp boosters in HO scale
if you know that the entire layout won't be drawing more than 15 amps
in the HO scale setting. As long as you know that the two boosters will
not exceed the 12-amp limit of the PS2012, you can power them both with
the same power supply.
HOWEVER, when connecting multiple boosters
to one power supply, each booster needs a fuse, with the booster's rating,
between it and the power supply. For example, using four 5-amp boosters
with a PS2012 requires using four 5-amp in-line fuses, one between each
booster and the power supply. |
