Powering Lemax Amusments

Menard's sells a 5 amp 4.5v Adapter that you could wire as a bus or use a PDU and power a decent amount of Lemax things.

I have Lemax adapters.  Looking for alternatives.

It's not a Lemax Adapter, The Lemax are 1amp at most (I believe, could be wrong).

The 5 amp adapter could most likely power all your 4.5v accessories by itself

One of my Lemax power adapters will power three of the rides the others are for single rides.  The three adapter is 4.5 volts and 1000Ma.

1000Ma is 1 amp.  Are you trying to eliminate needing an adapter all together?

Brendan

I took the easy way out. I have a bunch of AC outlet strips under the train table. All my LEMAX's are directly plugged into those strips. I did the same with Miller signs (3-4 signs per Miller AC power supply) and Woodland Scenics lighting.

WaynePA:  I believe the answer to your original question - Is there a way to power the Lemax amusements using the ZW-L - is NO, not without building or adding some kind of voltage converter.  The Lemax transformers put out DC volts while the ZW-L puts out AC volts.

fgnewton, I can't find the 5 amp converter you mention.  Would you please provide a link or at least a make and model number?  Thanks.

John

This photo hijacked from a previous OGR thread on topic.  Prices are no doubt out of date but shows the Menards SKU # for the 5000 mA (5 Amp) converter.  For power multiple buildings from a single adapter, consider their accessory kit which has extension wires and splitters.

@WaynePa posted:

I have Lemax adapters.  Looking for alternatives.

As others mentioned, the Lemax accessories operate on DC voltage and the Lemax adapters provide such DC.  The ZW-L supplies AC voltage.  Say you have a ZW-L output set to 14V or 16V AC for driving accessories.  An AC-to-DC converter module can convert the AC-to-DC.  It does require a voltmeter to set the output to 4.5V DC.  It does require stripping wires.  It does require figuring out how to attach the Lemax compatible plugs to the wire outputs from the AC-to-DC converter.  It can be tedious trying to track down the various components, adapters, etc.

Here's a photo I posted from a previous OGR thread.

If this level of DIY is something you feel comfortable with there are many guys on OGR who have taken this route and will chime in.

Regarding the "mA" issue; the following is from the Lemax site:

I am happy to see that both Menards and Lemax now post the "mA" requirements for their accessories.  This has not always been the case.  I don't think it's too much to ask a customer to add 3 numbers together to confirm it's less than 1000 mA.

The widely available AC-to-DC converter modules that are in the $5-10 range are typically in the 1000-2000 mA range.  Perfectly reasonable to attach more than one AC-to-DC converter to a ZW-L output.

@stan2004 posted:

As others mentioned, the Lemax accessories operate on DC voltage and the Lemax adapters provide such DC.  The ZW-L supplies AC voltage.  Say you have a ZW-L output set to 14V or 16V AC for driving accessories.  An AC-to-DC converter module can convert the AC-to-DC.  It does require a voltmeter to set the output to 4.5V DC.  It does require stripping wires.  It does require figuring out how to attach the Lemax compatible plugs to the wire outputs from the AC-to-DC converter.  It can be tedious trying to track down the various components, adapters, etc.

Here's a photo I posted from a previous OGR thread.

If this level of DIY is something you feel comfortable with there are many guys on OGR who have taken this route and will chime in.

Regarding the "mA" issue; the following is from the Lemax site:

I am happy to see that both Menards and Lemax now post the "mA" requirements for their accessories.  This has not always been the case.  I don't think it's too much to ask a customer to add 3 numbers together to confirm it's less than 1000 mA.

The widely available AC-to-DC converter modules that are in the $5-10 range are typically in the 1000-2000 mA range.  Perfectly reasonable to attach more than one AC-to-DC converter to a ZW-L output.

Where are those products pictured for sale.

@WaynePa posted:

Where are those products pictured for sale.

These are just some examples, but copy and paste these terms, to search in ebay, amazon, alliexpress or your favorite site for a variety of choices.  There will be many configurations and pricing that generally perform the same function. Off shore sources may be cheaper but shipping will take longer.

AC/DC - DC buck converters

5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel connectors

5.5mm x 2.1mm barrel connector splitters

Part and parcel of the DIY approach is the clerical tedium of sourcing components.

For your ZW-L to Lemax application, the key part is the AC-to-DC voltage converter that takes 14-16V AC Accessory voltage and converts it to 4.5V DC Lemax voltage.  But if you go online and search for "AC to DC voltage converter" you will be overwhelmed and more than likely select something that won't work at all.  That is, most AC to DC converters assume the "AC" (input) is 120V AC wall outlet voltage...not the low-voltage AC from an O-gauge train transformer output!  Needless to say, the Lemax and Menards wall-plug adapters are themselves "AC to DC voltage converters".

I found the photo I must have used in an earlier thread describing the converter I showed earlier:

But, I just looked on eBay and couldn't find it.  Par for the course for DIY.

So here's another converter module option that is currently available on both eBay and Amazon.  In general, you can find the same modules on eBay (from Asia) and Amazon (fulfilled-by-Amazon) and make your own price vs. shipping-speed tradeoff.

I've used this one too and it would work fine with the ZW-L.  I found this photo I must have posted in some earlier thread:

This was for a 12V DC output application...in your case you'd adjust the output to 4.5V DC using a small screwdriver and a DC voltmeter.  As an aside, for Menards buildings most guys using these adjustable converters report setting the DC voltage to something less than 4.5V.  That is, the buildings are too bright (obviously a to-each-his-own) so they dial down to maybe 4V, 3.5V, or whatever.  It would be interesting to see if Lemax amusement items respond "gracefully" to reduced voltages...for example if a carnival, can you reduce voltage to adjust the motor speed of the ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, or whatever to your liking.

Note that these modules will claim output "mA" of 2 or 3 Amps (2000 or 3000 mA).  To each his own, but I take these claims with a grain of salt.  In my opinion you're better off planning ahead by targeting, say, 1/2 or so of the rated capability...and using additional modules sprinkled around the layout so you can add a new accessory downstream without a major re-wiring job.

The connectors are very widely available in many forms...soldered, screw-terminal, pre-wired, and so on.  Heck, I'll bet if you look in a junk box you'll have some old wall-wart AC-to-DC adapters that have a cable with the correct plug on it.  Snip and use the cable and plug (toss the converter)!

Above shows a current eBay listing for pairs of male-female screw-terminal adapters for about 50 cents each...and from a US seller too.  This is a reasonable price for small quantities.  So, for example, a male-female pair of these could be used to make an extension cable of arbitrary length without soldering.

Above is also from an earlier OGR thread so prices probably no longer correct but gives an idea of "search" terms you might use to find compatible splitter cables.  This photo is useful because it uses DC12V in the listing title...which begs the question if these can be used for 4.5V DC.  Answer: Yes.

Above shows another photo I must have posted in a previous thread.  The idea here is if you don't have a DC voltmeter, for $1-2 you can get a digital module that measures DC voltage.  It has 2-wires and simply attaches to the DC output of the AC-to-DC converter module.  Even though in most cases setting the DC voltage to 4.5V (or whatever) is one-and-done, some guys like to have a continuous monitor even if its under the layout...and considering the modest cost, why not!?

And, finally, if you take the plunge into DIY modular electronics, there are DC-powered timer modules for ~$5 that can add interest to your amusement park.  Maybe Lemax items already have this feature built-in, but a timer module could cycle a carnival ride On for 2 minutes, Off for 1 minute or whatever durations you set.