Lionel Tmcc direct lockon

If you are going to use a Lionel brick you don't need the TMCC lock on. The lock on is simply a fast circuit breaker. The brick will trip just as fast. The TMCC lock on will provide the same fast protection if you wanted to use older power like a Post War ZW.

 

Pete

You are welcome, of course, to use the "34120 TMCC Direct Lockon" with any power supply you desire, if you want something more versatile than the 180 brick.

 

The 34120 has the connections you are looking for.

I figured I'd need the tmcc lock on because I see the brick has an adapter on the end. I don't know what I would have to use to eliminate the tmcc but on the other hand it will look nice on a layout.

Like Rob says you can use it if you want. It won't provide any additional protection but one advantage of the Lock On is it is self resetting while the brick has to be reset manually. Both will trip at ten amps so to get the benefit of the Lock Ons self resetting feature it would have to trip before the brick.

I use the Lock On because all my power is either Post War or home made but if I had a modern Z4000 or ZW I would not use it. You wouldn't want to use a lock on for non command engines as the relay does not close until you raise the transformer to about 13 volts. 

Pete

I'll give you one GREAT BIG DISADVANTAGE of the TMCC Lockon!  It will kill your DCS signal from the MTH TIU!  If you send the TIU output through the TMCC Direct Lockon, you will cease to have DCS control.

That's some good information John. So how do I go about connecting the 180 watt brick to the layout? Do they have a wire that plugs into the connector of the power brick so you can wire it to a power buss terminal strip?

Remember, if you plan on adding DCS at some point, it likes star wiring, not bus wiring.  That's a point to consider.

I plan on having dcs,legacy, and tmcc. What is star wiring?

Star wiring is running the feed for a power district from the MTH TIU to a central terminal block, then running feeders direct from that terminal block to the track connections.

 

Bus wiring is running a large set of wires under the layout along the track path and tapping off the track drops from the "power bus" wires.

Star wiring involves pairs of hot and common feeders that go out from thr transformer via the terminal strip to each power point on the layout.

 

The video with the loop of wiring with the feeders going out at various points is called "buss wiring". This is the easiest method of wiring but is not considered the best type for DCS because DCS communicates via the hot and common rails of the track.

 

Star wiring is recommended for DCS so it has the appropriate communication paths. I believe is also recommended that  your layout be divide into seperate blocks for each pair of feeders, multiple pairs of feeders on the same block can cuase signal issues with DCS.

 

Having said all that, if you going to rewire I'd recommend a minimum of 16 GA wire throughout. 18GA is a bit skimpy especially for handling power from a 180w brick.I wired my layout with 14GA buss and feeders, best thing I did, I've never had any of the voltage drop problems some have had on the forum over the years, and my feeders are 8-10' apart.

 

Wire is the most critical part of a layout next to trackwork, don't cut corners.

Correct me if I am wrong since I am a novice at this. From what I understand I have to first come out of the power brick and tap those lines into the DCS TIU. Once that is done I then come out of the TIU and then hook that up to the wiring buss?

Correct, the lines from the transformer(s) go to the input side of the TIU, and the output side of the TIU channels go to the terminal blocks for your power districts.

Ok John that sounds pretty simple. Ok as my layout stands right now I am running a conventional 40watt starter set transformer. The output of that hooks into the terminal strip. I then "daisy chained" the power strip. After I did that I ran the power feeders from the "hot rail" to the terminal strip. I did my best in trying to keep the wires neat but there is a lot of wire. Now say I come out of the TIU with 14 or 16 gauge stranded power wire and snaked it under my entire layout as it showed in the lionel video then tapped 16 or 18 gauge feeder wires to that main feed is this a more efficient way for power distribution or is the terminal buss strip better?

It's not a matter of "efficiency", but rather the DCS wiring requirements.  If you bus wire the layout, it's may be a problem for DCS operation, depending on the size of the layout.

 

We're currently getting DCS running at our modular club, and we already have bus wiring, which is hard to avoid when you take the layout apart and move it from place to place.  It's been "interesting", and there's still work to do.

So what are my options? And also is it the same thing if I run a main feeder wire around the entire layout or if you are using a terminal buss strip? Do they both do the same job?

No, they don't work the same, that's my point.  A star wiring arrangement is home-runs from each track feeder to a common point that is fed directly from the TIU channel.  A bus is a wire under the whole layout with taps off for the track feeders.  The star wiring is preferred for DCS, and it works fine for TMCC as well.

So the way my layout is wired up right now is dcs ready from what I understand. All I need to do is purchase a power brick and TIU. Then feed the power brick to the TIU, then from the TIU to the terminal strip. The wires are all ran already I have 3 loops with drops about every 6 feet. All the power drops tap into the terminal strip.

Sounds like DCS wiring to me.  It'll work fine for TMCC/Legacy as well.

Thank you so much for your help John. It's greatly appreciated.

You are most welcome.