New Legacy Powermasters

There wI'll also be new versions of the TPC's next year

Nicole / John:

Thanks for all your comments.

I think I got it straight now.

I will electrically isolate my two 'power districts' by the middle rail only and use a common ground.

My two loops are separated by Ross 175 double crossovers. I was told by Ross that one side is electrically isolated from the other but I need to check if this is power only or power and ground. So I will either connect the signal wire from the Legacy base to one outside rail if continuous ground or connect a signal wire to both the TPC and Legacy Powermaster if isolation is both power and ground.

I will connect separate power supplies to the TPC and powermaster and program them with separate Track ID numbers. I will connect the serial port of the TPC to the command base.

Then I believe I am ready to go.

John:

As an experiment I connected both sides of the Z4000 to the TPC400 using the cable that Lionel sells. I found that as I moved the handle on one side of the transformer up both sides rose in voltage pretty much in tandem. But even with the Lionel cable I am still technically shorting the posts of the Z4000 to one another so I will not do this. The basic reason for the extra amps is that the inside loop contains the train yard, industry yards etc. I think instead that once I save up some money I will make the train yard a third isolated power district with a new powermaster. This way I will have one TPC and two powermasters. I can then connect the powerhouse to one powermaster and the Z4000 to the TPC and the new powermaster so each will have 180 watts. I will also run power through toggle switches so I can turn the spurs (especially the turntable yard) that have locomotives on them on/off. 

I like your plan-B, I don't like shorting the outputs of the Z4000 together, and they specifically caution you not to do so in the manual, so I suspect it's a bad idea.

Nicole, thank you for your reply...Can anyone else shed some light on my question?

"I just purchased the PSX circuit protection for my layout. Focusing on circuit protection only does the Legacy Powermaster provide better or the same protection versus the PSX?"

I suspect, unless someone has actually tested the two side-by-side, it's difficult to give you a factual answer.  I suspect the Legacy PowerMaster is plenty good for the task, but I for one can't say it's "better" or "worse" than the PSX.

The PSX-AC is microprocessor controlled, as I would suspect the Legacy Powermaster would be.

PSX-AC may be "better" only for it's user adjustable trip point and generic application with various power configurations. That could also be a hazard if set to high for sensitive equipment.

Try a new topic "Feedback on PSX-AC" or something to find some user's actual experience.

The Lionel Legacy powermasters work, quickly and an engineer has already determined the settings for Lionel equipment. To me, that's better, cuz it is one more thing I can't screw up.

I  am going to be connecting the Z4000 to the two legacy powermasters. I need the 6-12893 cable set for this but can't find any on the internet. Looks like everyone is out of stock so I am going to have a friend make them for me. I have the molex connectors but need to buy the in line fuses. Does anyone know what size the fuse is? I am thinking 10 amps???? Is the fuze necessary?

Thanks

Joe

As long as you have good circuit breakers on the Z4000, the fuse is not really necessary.

Thanks John