Digging through the manuals looking for something else, I notice both the DCS and TMCC manuals say max voltage should be 18V .. no more. Thought people had said 22V for DCS .... not correct?
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Kerrigan I probably get in trouble for saying this. Seemed like my DCS worked better at 21 volts Z4000 handles all the way up. I use 180 bricks now.
Clem k
From the transformer chart for a PS/3 locomotive, there's a couple of transformers with the * and the note is below. This is from a PS/3 manual, so apparently they're claiming it's not as limited as PS/2 as far as voltage tolerance.
* Use 22 volts maximum track voltage when operating a MTH locomotive equipped with Proto-Sound, Loco-Sound, or Proto-Sound 2.0
FWIW, I've always heard 22 volts as well, so that seems to ring true.
Well we use 30V DC in the large scale world with DCS...up around 35V the PS2 & 3 decoders start acting up. 24V DC is the norm but some other manufacturers loco's converted to DCS require 30V to get up to prototypical speeds.
Interesting. When I run across it again I post the page.
We run 18V max for everything to keep from frying TMCC and it seems to work well.
It is a comment in the manual that the passenger car light bulbs are 18v and keeping at at 18v makes them last longer.
Must have been before lo-voltage lighting?
Unless you have LED lighting and a power supply that tolerates more than 18 VAC, that could be an issue. My lighting regulators will work up to around 25-26 VAC on the rails before you start exceeding the specs of some components.
