I have several uncoupling track sections, can I control all of them with one button (all would activate at once). This would save me from buying several.
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I don't see why not; I have 5, but wired individually. As long as you connect them all in series it should work just fine. Hmmm..... on second thought, it might depend on your power supply. I have no idea how many milliamps each one pulls, so given a quantity, you could be exceeding limits of your wires or transformer output. How many are you talking?
About 18, using a MTH Z-4000 transformer.
Not sure what you mean by your statement "this will save me from buying several"? The Atlas O uncoupler track comes with a controller. Maybe you bought somewhere and the uncoupler track controller was missing. Not really sure why you would want multiple uncoupler tracks to fire at the same time. Would you want to uncouple cars on multiple tracks at the same time?? Somehow I'm missing the logic here.
I would say no, you would want them each separately controlled. If I remember correctly my Atlas uncoupler draws a little over 4 amps. You would probably be tripping your Z4000 breakers after connecting more than a couple of them together. If you have a meter you could check the amperage on a couple of yours to make sure they are similar to mine.
You could maybe use one Atlas push button operator with a selector switch or something like that where you could select the uncoupler you wanted to operate and then push the button.
ENICHTR...........I did this years ago on one loop, thought it would be good, because I also didn't want all those buttons. it worked but was a pain in the neck because I would be uncoupling some other train or another part of the same train that was running. I also would go for each one single.
Clem
You don't have to use the Atlas button to engage the magnate on these. Any momentary button/switch would work as long as it met the amp rating.
That's not something I would recommend. If that single switch should get stuck for any reason you could cook all 18 sections and be out quite a bit of time and expense. I would think you could find a cheap alternative to the Atlas switch at a decent electronics store.