@Ted S posted:@Boilermaker1 I'm concerned that even if you find a converter with a narrower form factor, the heat radiating off your heat sink would warp your plastic shell. I would imagine that it HAS to be firmly in contact with the metal chassis.
Most of you have seen my rants about rubber tires in 3-rail O gauge. Ask yourself: What would the peak current draw be if the wheels were allowed to slip, as God and Sir Isaac Newton intended? Perhaps 3A is sufficient?
The peak current draw is not at wheel slip, which is essentially a no load condition. The current peaks when the motor stalls and the stall current is easy to measure with a meter by simply holding the output shaft of the motor and turning the voltage wide open.
It’s a 4 amp decoder. Need to be able to supply at least that much power to it. Soundtraxx decoders have a fail safe that will shut the decoder down if the motor driver overloads to save the decoder.
Not worried about heat, it’s not that much power, and there’s already primitive electronics in there that haven’t melted down.
