TMCC power master question

@Art Lites posted:

I have an early Power Master which I believe was designed for 135 watt bricks.  Can I plug a 180w brick into this unit.  if there is a problem, what is that problem?

Thanks Art

Probably it trips at the 135W equivalent load so you never get a full 180 out of it.- Not that big of a problem IMO. 10A on a rail I consider overkill and likely to damage something anyway (finds the weak link somewhere else).

The other thing is, since the supply has higher capacity and so the reaction and sensing might be off- there is a chance a derailment short may kill the powermaster before the safety has time to trip. I could be wrong about that, the brick itself also has protection so in theory other than again killing an output device in the powermaster, it's unlikely to be some major risk.

It's older used equipment, you sort of expect it to die one day, so using it with a bigger brick probably is fine.

*If its working properly* that thing has a hair trigger and will cut the power pretty quick; blue Legacy PowerMasters have a longer delay. My opinion - use it. You may find you get tired of its BS and buy Legacy ones later on. If you are using it with conventional post war trains, you may want that extra (180-135)/18= 2.5A. Again, just use it,  you will know more of what you prefer in the future than you do now.

@Vernon Barry posted:

Probably it trips at the 135W equivalent load so you never get a full 180 out of it.-

Yep, I never had a problem doing it that way.

@Vernon Barry posted:

..since the supply has higher capacity and so the reaction and sensing might be off- there is a chance a derailment short may kill the powermaster before the safety has time to trip...

I use the 135 PowerMasters powered w/ ZWs(top setting 18v on B-U or C-U) and Kws(fixed 20 volts D-U) and the PM-1 trips very fast when exceeding 7 amps.  When using the 135 PH-1, it never trips before the PM-1.

The 180 PH just has more overhead than the 135. You could connect the PM-1 to a 2000 watt power supply... it doesn't know the difference.

Thanks, I will be using it with conventional.  So I will continue to use with 180W.  Again, thanks for the input.  Art