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My layout has four power districts, each one powered with the Lionel Powerhouse 180 transformer that then feeds a channel on the MTH TIU.  One of the issues I faced was how to control the whole layout remotely, as well as reset the transformer if the breaker trips.  Since I didn't want the power panel sticking out for ready access, that was something that I had to mull over.  I came up with an inexpensive remote control solution that so far has really worked out well.

I bought a set of 5 RF controlled remote outlet switches, all controlled from a 10-button controller.

Layout Power Control N4

I took the #5 controller and used that as the master power control, it switches off the entire power input to the layout, this comes from a dedicated 15A circuit.

Layout Power Control N1

Each of the transformers connects to one of the other four controllers, they're all plugged into a long power strip on the back of my power panel.

Layout Power Control N2

The actual control is the hand held RF transmitter, and I've "customized" it to clearly identify the master kill switch.

Layout Power Control N3

The range on these covers most of my house, so they've been dead reliable anywhere around the train platform and even in the back workshop or up in the kitchen!

When the breaker trips on one of the PH180's, I can just take any one of the transmitters (I have four of them) and toggle that bricks power to restore the breaker.  There's no need to trot to the transformer to reset it.

I normally stick one of these in my pocket when running so I have instant access to the power down and reset capability.

When it comes time to shut down the layout, I just punch the #5 off key and everything is off.  This model controller powers up in the off position, so I can power up the master and individually select which power districts to power up for that session if desired.  The master power also brings up aux power for all the switch machines and the Legacy system so I can set switches, etc. before any track is energized.

For a sure-fire noticeable indication that the layout is still energized when I'm shutting down for the night (or any other time), I have coming a nice red bulb fixture that will be put into a spare controlled outlet receiver (I have two sets of these), and it will turn on whenever the layout is energized.  When I head for the steps after killing the lights, the big red bulb will tell me I forgot to kill the layout.

We've had other discussions about various kill switch options, this just seemed to be a nice and simple and yet very effective to do the job for peanuts.  It also required very little time to implement, order the outlets, plug them in, and program them.

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  • Layout Power Control N1
  • Layout Power Control N2
  • Layout Power Control N3
  • Layout Power Control N4
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I have all my layout power plugged into a power strip and the power strip plugged into a Woods remote receiver. One push of the button powers up the entire layout including the five powehouses and the Cab 1-L base. My LED lighted station is always on when the layout is powered, so that's my indicator of power on or off.

I recently added a timed outlet to my work bench, just in case I leave its power turned on.

Ray

Ray, I needed the separate transformer controls as that's how I reset the breakers on the Lionel PH180 bricks.  Since they're inside the layout and I may not want to stop the presses and raise the bridge to get to them, this is a convenient way to reset them remotely.

My master will probably also turn on stuff like accessory lights when I get to that stage of building the layout.

Last edited by gunrunnerjohn

John,

I never thought of that possibility, being able to reset the Powerhouse breakers remotely, my head is starting to swim. Although my Powerhouses are on the perimeter of my layout, when one has tripped I need to walk to that location to reset.  I have only had a Powerhouse breaker trip once during a "play trains" session, most often one of the Powermasters trip and that I can reset from the Cab 1-L. I guess you may be talking beyond my understanding but, yes a great idea. I not being an EE don't comprehend how that works, unless there may be a breaker in each of the plug in modules, I looked for the answer at their store but couldn't find it.

Thanks

Ray

Simple solution to power control John. I've fiddled around with various wi-fi enabled devices and they are pretty cool. Now if you have an Alexa or Google smart device you can do it with voice controls too. No need to carry a remote around.
I'm still not at the point of talking to stuff and telling it what to do. A little bit too "2001 Space Odyssey" for me. At least Amazon didn't call it Hal.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Simple solution to power control John. I've fiddled around with various wi-fi enabled devices and they are pretty cool. Now if you have an Alexa or Google smart device you can do it with voice controls too. No need to carry a remote around.
I'm still not at the point of talking to stuff and telling it what to do. A little bit too "2001 Space Odyssey" for me. At least Amazon didn't call it Hal.

Bob

You mean Lionel Voice Control?!? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0L6mvZ6TEw

@Rayin"S" posted:

John,

I never thought of that possibility, being able to reset the Powerhouse breakers remotely, my head is starting to swim. Although my Powerhouses are on the perimeter of my layout, when one has tripped I need to walk to that location to reset.  I have only had a Powerhouse breaker trip once during a "play trains" session, most often one of the Powermasters trip and that I can reset from the Cab 1-L. I guess you may be talking beyond my understanding but, yes a great idea. I not being an EE don't comprehend how that works, unless there may be a breaker in each of the plug in modules, I looked for the answer at their store but couldn't find it.

Ray, the PH180 breaker actually picks a relay to interrupt power.  The button on the transformer simply drops the relay out and allows power to flow again (assuming the overload is not still present).  So, just cycling power to the brick restores the power.  I don't use any PowerMasters as I have the TIU to do what little conventional I might run.  Being strictly command for the most part, I just need 18 volts on the tracks and I'm happy.

@RSJB18 posted:

Simple solution to power control John. I've fiddled around with various wi-fi enabled devices and they are pretty cool. Now if you have an Alexa or Google smart device you can do it with voice controls too. No need to carry a remote around.

I'm not ready for the vagaries of voice control, we have several of the Echo Dot devices, and they're all in a box now.  Too many times you have to "explain" things to them, and occasionally they spring to life for no reason.  They're are a bit too intrusive for my liking, they'd occasionally respond to innocuous sounds.  We even had the cops show up once, turns out Alexa was listening to a TV show and decided there was a domestic disturbance happening!  I'm not ready for Big Brother just yet, we're getting too much of that outside the home!

That's a nice simple solution for your needs.

I noticed the 15A rating on those switches, which is likely what your home circuit is anyway, but it had me wondering what kind of current draw you have from the whole layout - or is that dependent on what you are running at a given moment?  I'm not exactly sure how that works.

Do the 180’s use the same fold back current limit technology Lionel used on the ZW-L as it relates to a short.  As long as it is not a dead short the circuit breaker does not pop and the power is restored by turning off that channel on the transformer.

Do the 180’s also have a physical circuit breaker that would need to be pushed back in in order to restore power.

Ray, the PH180 breaker actually picks a relay to interrupt power.  The button on the transformer simply drops the relay out and allows power to flow again (assuming the overload is not still present).  So, just cycling power to the brick restores the power.  I don't use any PowerMasters as I have the TIU to do what little conventional I might run.  Being strictly command for the most part, I just need 18 volts on the tracks and I'm happy.

John, Thank you so much for explaining that, it did not penetrate before but now I understand how that works, thanks for putting the cookies on the shelf where I can reach them!

Ray

@JD2035RR posted:

That's a nice simple solution for your needs.

I noticed the 15A rating on those switches, which is likely what your home circuit is anyway, but it had me wondering what kind of current draw you have from the whole layout - or is that dependent on what you are running at a given moment?  I'm not exactly sure how that works.

The circuit they're plugged into is a 15A circuit.  Figuring 200 watts max for each PH180 transformer (that ain't ever gonna' happen in real life), and maybe a couple hundred watts for any accessory stuff that gets added, I'm nowhere near the 1800 watts of capacity on one 15A circuit.

@WaynePa posted:

Do the 180’s use the same fold back current limit technology Lionel used on the ZW-L as it relates to a short.  As long as it is not a dead short the circuit breaker does not pop and the power is restored by turning off that channel on the transformer.

Do the 180’s also have a physical circuit breaker that would need to be pushed back in in order to restore power.

The PH180 has a breaker that opens and stays open.  It's actually a two-channel sensing circuit.  For a slowly increasing overload, it allows some extra time to trip based on the assumption that it might be a startup surge.  OTOH, for an immediate short circuit, it trips lightning fast.  In either case, once the breaker is tripped, you either have to power cycle the brick input or push the button on the brick to restore power.

Since my bricks are inside my layout center opening and under the table, I don't want to have to go in there to reset them since I'm normally operating from outside the layout.  By having the ability to power cycle them remotely, that problem is solved.

Yes, I'm going to make better labels for the bricks, just have to get round-toit.

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@bigkid posted:

John, the picture of the controllers plugged in, the way the photo was shot it reminds me of the outlets in the kid's house in "A Christmas Story" *lol* (though I know your setup will not spark and blow the breaker.

Yep, I actually have some decent power strips there to plug them in.  There are no cube taps in the picture, let's be kind here!

Yep, I actually have some decent power strips there to plug them in.  There are no cube taps in the picture, let's be kind here!

Don't laugh, I had an acquaintance (won't admit he is a friend) who said he couldn't understand why in his basement that he kept tripping this one breaker, there 'only was one thing' plugged into it. The guy had a power strip (not a heavy duty one, mind you) that had triple taps plugged into every one of the outlets, had like 4 I think, and bunch of stuff plugged into the taps, pretty much full. What made it worse was somehow, whether it was defective or more likely him, the breaker on the power strip was shorted or something (I suspect he did it, if those break, normally it is in the open position).  I suspect he had fools luck, that he had so much plugged in there it was drawing so much current that the wires never had a chance to melt. When I pointed out to him how stupid that was, he said "but the stuff in there can't draw that much"......

@amtrack5899 posted:

For some reason only the attachment showed up.  I have a tendency to loose remotes therefore i decided to go old school.  The 180 bricks plug into an outlet . The outlets are controlled by a switch.

That's why I have four of the remotes, surely one will be around when I look for it!

I also like the fact that I can pop one into my pocket as I run, so I always have ready access to the kill switch or the ability to reset a transformer.

I have an RF remote to control the lights in my staging area.  Worked great for a few months maybe.  After that, I noticed a number of times that the lights were on on the morning even though I turned them off the night before.  I still use the remote to control brightness, but I use a manual switch to turn them on and off.

Hope you have better luck with yours.

It might be overkill but I have all my layout electronics fed by an APC Smart-UPS power supply.

One good lightning strike in my opinion could potentially affect a whole slew of computer boards running the layout along with all the locomotives. The Smart UPS delivers clean AC to the layout while also providing quite ample lightning/surge protection.

Thoughts?

Chuck

We deep-sixed Alexa here.  Too many times it would either suddenly start talking for no reason, and when it apparently heard a TV show that sounded like a crime happening and the State Police showed up, that was the last straw!  I'm not ready for big brother just yet, it's getting too invasive.  The Echo's are all in a box in my closet.

Yes.  At some point, Nomad will want to return to launch point and sterilize.    

George

@Lehigh74 posted:

I have an RF remote to control the lights in my staging area.  Worked great for a few months maybe.  After that, I noticed a number of times that the lights were on on the morning even though I turned them off the night before.  I still use the remote to control brightness, but I use a manual switch to turn them on and off.

Hope you have better luck with yours.

I was thinking the same thing!  I have a remote for a ceiling fan and light in our sunroom.  Whenever there is a power outage or interruption, the light goes on.

John, I like what you have done, but I think I would put a mechanical master switch that would cut all power.   It seems to me that the modules you are using are always ON waiting for a signal and it seems there are so many signals floating around.

On my layout, I have separate transformers for lights, signals, and accessories so that when all I want to do is run trains, I can cut power to the separate transformers.  Your modules would allow me individually cut on lights or signals or accessories.  Thank you for sharing!

By the way, Your layout is looking great.

Happy railroading,

Don

@Lehigh74 posted:

I have an RF remote to control the lights in my staging area.  Worked great for a few months maybe.  After that, I noticed a number of times that the lights were on on the morning even though I turned them off the night before.  I still use the remote to control brightness, but I use a manual switch to turn them on and off.

Hope you have better luck with yours.

These have digital encoding for the controls, I'm pretty sure they aren't going to be randomly operating, but we'll see.  If I have a problem, it's a simple scheme to replace.

@DGJONES posted:

I was thinking the same thing!  I have a remote for a ceiling fan and light in our sunroom.  Whenever there is a power outage or interruption, the light goes on.

John, I like what you have done, but I think I would put a mechanical master switch that would cut all power.   It seems to me that the modules you are using are always ON waiting for a signal and it seems there are so many signals floating around.

On my layout, I have separate transformers for lights, signals, and accessories so that when all I want to do is run trains, I can cut power to the separate transformers.  Your modules would allow me individually cut on lights or signals or accessories.  Thank you for sharing!

There's actually only one of them that can turn on the overall power, so if it ever becomes an issue, I'll just add a switch at the front of the layout and control the whole circuit.  The other four wireless receivers just allow me to toggle the individual transformer power to accomplish a remote reset of the PH180 breaker.  When I'm wiring accessories, I'll be adding controls for them.

@Rail Dawg posted:

It might be overkill but I have all my layout electronics fed by an APC Smart-UPS power supply...thoughts?

Chuck

Chuck, I like the idea of a UPS.  I looked at the install docs for the Smart-UPS you referenced and noticed it had a 2 x 3 array of output receptacles to connect to your power supplies.  Are these outputs also in phase with one another?  I'm assuming multiple transformers/power supplies still need to be in phase with each other even when going through a UPS first; am I correct in this assumption?

Anyone else with knowledge can opine as well.

Tom

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