@trainman129 posted:I have a rack mounting box full of power supplies which run my layout. The one for my turnouts (tortoise) is making about 17+ volts both pos. and neg. This seems maby a bit too much. Does anyone have a means of dropping the outputs down to about 12 volts? Seems like the turtles will like that better.\
Thanks
Jay
Since you mention DC, I'm assuming that positive is one direction and negative the other, if that is so, diodes would not work in one direction or you would have to have 2 series strings paralleled with anodes going one way and cathodes the other, double the parts count. Is the power supply supposed to make 17VDC or has something failed in it? A switch motor like that would be a constant load in operation, with perhaps a current draw of 250ma, a simple 20 ohm 2 watt resistor would drop 17 to 12, but if a bunch of turnouts run from that supply and run at the same time, you would need a resistor in the line to each turnout. If the current draw is higher or lower, you have to adjust size and wattage and higher is more of a problem than lower, if it drew 1 amp, that would take 5 ohms at 5 watts minimum, in that case the converter would be a better bet but adds a complicated failure element to the mix.
