Electronic Circuit Breakers - Anyone have experience?

Do a search here, there are a number of threads on these units.

Try this search: PSX-AC

I'm using them and have been very satisfied so far. They are extremely fast, they trip instantly with no sparks. They work as advertised. I purchased four of them about a year and a half ago and am now using two of them with an expansion planned that will put the other two into service, hopefully in the next year or so. I am using them with the Lionel PowerHouse-180's which also have very fast breakers. So far the PSX's have always tripped before the PH-180's. However, to be fair here, the PH-180's have 10 amp breakers and I have the PSX-AC's set to 8 amps.

Manual reset is probably the only required add-on (as I see it anyway), but I have added manual reset switches, the alarms and indication LED's to my set up, but I am a sucker for all the electronic gadgets and bells & whistles. So far I am quite satisfied with them and think they are worth the added cost to your layout power.

In some of the discussions here some folks think they are waste of money and not required. I think that would be true if you are only running conventional with pre or postwar trains. However with the modern command control electronic engines (which is all I have) I think they provide some added protection. If they save the electronics in just one of my engines from having to be repaired or re[laced, they have more than paid for themselves.

I recently added some meters to the mix in my set up and had some unexpected results. Described here: PSX-AC's, PH-180's and analog volt & amp meters. I have corrected that by re-locating the meters in the circuit, but have no explanation other than the cheapie meters from ebay that I used. As I said in the thread, I may call about DCC Specialties (or Tony's Train Exchange where I purchased them) to see what they have to say about this.

This is the only odd thing that has happened with mine so far, and I did play with them on the bench for quite a while before installing them on the layout. I'm not an electronics expert like some here on the forum, but personally I would recommend them. With the prices of our engines these days, some added protection is very nice to have.

I needed a CB to protect my trains from the high amps of using two PH180s and a TPC400.  After reading about the PSX-AC I bought some and installed one between the TPC and track.  The PSX is set at 15.5 amps, and I get a barely noticeable spark when I short the track; very quick.  Neither the PoHo or TPC trips.

The PSX did interfere with the DCS signal from MTH's DCS command control when installed between the TIU and track.  Since the PSX is a CB, install it per Barry's book, between the transformer and TIU, and you should have no problems.  If you do see some signal interference, John (gunrunnerjohn) recommends adding a 22uH choke in the circuit to smooth the signal.  The choke needs to be between the PSX and the track, or between the PSX and the terminal block.  John recommended a 34A 22uH choke for my high amp installation and it works great; signal was restored.  This choke is very large.  There may be smaller ones that would work just as well for normal wattage layouts.

If you don't add a manual reset, the PSX will keep trying to reset automatically even if you don't want it to.  I use a lighted push button to manually reset the circuit breaker.  I have it set up so the red LED in the button comes on when the PSX trips.  You fix the problem causing the short, and push the lighted button to reset the CB.   Got this idea from Michael (MHK58).

I 150% agree and concur with all the above.  Have two on my post war ZW outputs into the TIU, and these CB have "saved my bacon (as well as the engine electronics )"

rtr12,

I followed Gunrunnerjohn's suggestion and found his and your posts.  I read through all the posts in several threads and am convinced that the PSX is the best way for me to go.  I have both TMCC and DCS and was concerned about interference with their signals.  I also think that TVSes in the engines would be a good backup.

I order two boards from Charles Ro this afternoon.  Hopefully, I will see them Friday but more likely Monday.

Thanks to all for the info

Jan

I have DCS and Legacy. The PSX's are connected on the entering side of the TIU inputs. Legacy is connected to the TIU output commons and I have had no problems with the PSX's interfering with DCS or Legacy signals.

As CAPPilot said, I would highly recommend using the manual reset button. A Normally Closed pushbutton is all that's needed, but I like CAPPilot's method of using the lighted switch (wish I'd thought of that). I used a separate LED (extra work), which I don't have mounted in my fascia yet. I have the alarm buzzers connected though. You can get those from Digi-Key, if you want them.

Maybe I'm missing something in the wash . This piece sounds like nothing more than a, "souped-up" thermal breaker. One can buy many thermal breakers for much less.

God Bless,

"Pappy"

Thermal breakers are mechanical and dependent on an element heating up that in turn releases a mechanical lever opening an electrical circuit.  Many hundreds (thousands) of milliseconds will pass before the circuit opens.  Meantime your engine electronics or wiring is maybe destroyed.  Not bad if you are a non electronic convential runner.

The PSX circuitry monitors the current, cycle by cycle, sensing the gradual rising and falling current.  A sudden current change (short circuit) causes the thyristor device to open the AC circuit within a half sine to one full wave cycle whereas the thermal breaker is still in process of heating up to trip.  Even a magnetic breaker is comparatively slow to the PSX board.

Sam,

I appreciate your explanation. I'm still lost out here in left field. I'd better let well enough alone and return to my century.

God Bless,

"Pappy"

That was a good explanation. I may have even understood some of it? Since you have some of these, would you mind reading my thread about the volt amp meters and the PSX's and provide your thoughts. The link to it is in the 3rd post down in this thread in the 4th paragraph, just below gunrunnerjohn's post. Your opinions would be much appreciated. Thanks

There are a lot more people using these around here than I had first thought, that's good news (to me anyway).

Not much to consider regarding the Meters:

The Amp Meter experiences the full load of the specific power district it monitors and should be connected in series[inline] using the same heavy wire run as the Hot transformer feed.

The Volt Meter is connected in parallel[across-the-line]and requires only small wires from the Hot and Common since it is just monitoring the action.

Three power districts monitored in the picture below--white conductor is the Common. Volt meters in top row, Amp in bottom row.