Controlling Menard's Buildings With MTH AIU

What would be the advantage of doing that ?

My recollection is that Menard's buildings run off 4.5 dc volts.

You could use an appropriate wall wart split into as many buildings as you need with adapters (Menard's makes these) plugged into a power strip and all the buildings would come on at once when you flipped the power strip on.

You could also plug the power strip into a wireless remote outlet and they would light up when you pressed the button on the fob.

@Richie C. posted:

What would be the advantage of doing that ?

My recollection is that Menard's buildings run off 4.5 dc volts.

You could use an appropriate wall wart split into as many buildings as you need with adapters (Menard's makes these) plugged into a power strip and all the buildings would come on at once when you flipped the power strip on.

You could also plug the power strip into a wireless remote outlet and they would light up when you pressed the button on the fob.

The advantage would be to control everything by ONE item - the MTH DCS Remote.

Yes, Menard's builds use 4.5v. My thought is in lieu of connecting the power wires to the MTH AIU I would connect them to a separate power source (Menard's 4.5 power adapters).

I know I can connect several Menard's building together.

I used a buck converter to run them at 14v AC. Just set the DC side to be 4.5v

Are you wanting to be able to turn each of the buildings on and off individually?

@bigboy25 posted:

Are you wanting to be able to turn each of the buildings on and off individually?

That would be better, but thinking to keep it simple so that all go on at the same time and off at the same time.

I do have my 2nd AIU enroute so maybe that's a possibility?

I would go with what @Richie C. said and have one power strip that powers both the buildings and the AIU. You could control the buildings individually with AIU slots, but it would be expensive slot wise (and potentially require more than one AIU) and not that beneficial. Finally, you could use a relay and have the AIU control the relay that in turn powers all of the buildings. That way you would only be using one slot on your AIU and you would get the on/off capability you are looking for. That way, you could turn on the buildings at night with the DCS remote.

My thinking (electrical connections is not my best knowledge) is I would use some type of connector block and wire all the buildings to that block and then just 2 wires to one AIU port. Then I could turn all the building onoff at the same time.

I am about to receive a second AIU so I don't know if I have enough AIU accessories ports or not. But since Menard's buildings aren't activated (no action; just lights on/off), why not connect all to the connector block and then - as mentioned above, connect the connector block to ONE AIU port.

However, wouldn't that provide too much voltage to the buildings? AIU output is 18v(?) and the Menards buildings require only 4.5 volts.

At that point you would use a buck converter to convert the 18 volts to 4.5 volts and, if necessary, to convert the voltage from ac to dc. Depending on what's coming out of the AIU it would either be an ac-to-dc buck converter or a dc-to-dc buck converter.

You could then wire the buck converter output to a terminal block and connect all the Menard's buildings to the terminal block.

Amperage should not be much of an issue since the buildings typically don't draw a lot of amps, but you need to make sure of the buck converter specs. Some buck converters have a lighted and adjustable voltage output which is a nice feature.       

I use the AIUs to control DPDT relays. You use the AIU to turn the relay on and off and you run whatever you want through the relay, including higher amperage than the AIU will take, such as track sidings.

Gerry

As I said above, this is getting way above my understanding of electricity.

I do know the AIU outputs 14-18 (maybe a steady 18 volts?) and the Menards buildings only require 4.5 volts.

Would it hurt them if I directly connected them - via a connector block (so I could control all of them at once) - to ONE AIU accessory connector?

The AIU is a box of relays that respond to the DCS remote. There is no power output except what you put into it. The ACC ports will trigger and hold as NO (normally open) or NC (normally closed). The SW ports will trigger and generate a brief pulse and then release (generally used with solenoid driven switch machines). That is my understanding of the AIU.

You would use an ACC port feeding power (4.5 volts) to the IN terminal and then connect the NO terminal to your building or set of buildings. The only problem is that the relays in the AIU have a rated amperage that you don't want to exceed. I'm not sure what that rating is. So you have to be careful about that.