Lionel Powerhouse 180 'new' for 2019?

Price?

The word was they "lost" the old design and had to do a new design.  I've been kinda' wanting to take a new one apart and see what they did for it.  Here's what is in the old one, this breaker circuit works very well, don't know how the new one performs.

Thanks - I finally got a hold of someone at Lionel Customer Service - they tell me its identical and that other online vendors (eg Amazon) uses a different SKU.  Still not clear though why it won't be released if you buy through Lionel until mid October, especially when there are plenty to be had (albeit a different SKU) on line from different sources.

Not sure how they would have lost the old design, apparently you were able to track it down.

Still not making any sense to me....but, hey, I'm a beginner....

Well, the "lost the old design" was just the story going around, what really happened is probably only known by the folks at Lionel.  It's pretty hard for me to believe it was "lost" myself, like you say, I could help them out there.

I think I posted on here about it awhile back. We didn't 'lose' any designs. Not sure why anyone would think that 

New government regulations for AC power supplies meant we had to redesign some of the circuitry. It had to meet new UL/ETL certs.

Hey Dave, Why ruin a good story with facts? 

Thanks for the info!

George

phrankenstign posted:

Price?

Lionel store has the price at $149.99 with availability in mid-October.

So, do the new regulations mean I need to turn in my 8 old PH-180's, like my AR? 

George

Thank you Dave for clearing this all up.  As far as the connector, circuit breaker, unit size, reliability to name a few key attributes....will this new Powerhouse essentially be identical to the older versions still readily available?

Whats the purpose/intent of the new certs?

Looking forward to your insight, as I’m sure are others....thanks again!

Dave Olson posted:

I think I posted on here about it awhile back. We didn't 'lose' any designs. Not sure why anyone would think that 

May have had something to do with what this past high profile Lionel representative said about the powerhouse starting at 42:15.

The explanation given in that video doesn't leave any doubt about what happened.  It's clearly stated and unambiguous.

Kind of...I had to listen twice to get what was meant by bringing the core up to UL standards. Apparently the original core was not capable of doing the whole 10 amps? And now it is from what he said at the end when he said you will get the whole 20 amps with 2 of them. The delay of the breaker was obvious. It gives the Powermaster time to go thru it's shutdown functions rather than tripping the Powerhouse and having to be reset.

Dave Olson posted:

I think I posted on here about it awhile back. We didn't 'lose' any designs. Not sure why anyone would think that 

New government regulations for AC power supplies meant we had to redesign some of the circuitry. It had to meet new UL/ETL certs.

Dave, that was the story going around.  Note that I questioned it's veracity as it didn't seem that plausible.  Thanks for clarifying what happened. 

I do note that Mike stated, in the posted video above, that the company that did the original PH180 "took all the design stuff when it folded", which may have been where the story got started.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Dave Olson posted:

I think I posted on here about it awhile back. We didn't 'lose' any designs. Not sure why anyone would think that 

I do note that Mike stated, in the posted video above, that the company that did the original PH180 "took all the design stuff when it folded", which may have been where the story got started.

Yes, “lost” could mean that one has misplaced something, or something was taken from you.

In any case, there's a new PH180 in town, and it's fully UL approved.  Of course, it's also $50 higher in price, but that's inflation.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

In any case, there's a new PH180 in town, and it's fully UL approved.  Of course, it's also $50 higher in price, but that's inflation.

No.  That's LIONEL.

Glad to see one of my schematics still in circulation.  That was done with DesignWorks Lite which is no longer available.  I use DipTrace now.

Thanks for doing that Cam, I never knew where it came from!  It's been handy several times, nice job.  FWIW, I use DipTrace for my stuff as well.

Thanks John.  I started working on the Lift Bridge in 2016.  I need to get back to it.  I have the bridge wiring and interconnects, parts list and snippets of the main board down.  But the main board is very intense. Here is the first version of the controller schematic.

That's great Cam, when you get that done, you should post it in one of the documentation threads, maybe in Electrical.