John, Do you know how these compare to the PSX-ACs? I know those are VERY fast. I debating what rating to get. Initially I thought 10A, as I still have several sets of passenger cars with power hungry lighting. They are on the list for upgrading to LEDs, but that going to be a bit down the road.
Chris
LVHR
@gunrunnerjohn posted:These are thermal circuit breakers, so they won't be nearly as fast as Airpax magnetic circuit breakers if you want the ultimate in circuit protection.
Here's a link to the whole line of AirPax Breakers Suitable for Model Trains from 4A to 10A.
GRJ,
Do you recommend a "box" to mount them in. How does this compare to the PSX1-AC?
They've been around for years, and they're one of the few lines of magnetic breakers that are reasonably priced.
@Windy City posted:Do you recommend a "box" to mount them in. How does this compare to the PSX1-AC?
Box, panel, whatever. See above, nothing mechanical would be as fast as the PSX-AC. OTOH, I don't know that the absolute speed is doing all that much more good as long as the circuit protection is quick and reliable.
GRJ, I had never come across them when looking for half-reasonably priced magnetic breakers. To me, anything other than something that goes through a round hole is too hard to mount of a RR control panel, I do see there are some of those. However, since my Blue Sea breakers are doing their job, I don't think I'll replace them.
FWIW, while the electronic breaker in a PH-180 is very fast, often it is too fast, opening if a wheel flange brushes the center rail going through a switch.
As long as we're discussing breakers, I would note for those out in Forumland that breakers should also be put on accessory circuits
@lehighline posted:John, Do you know how these compare to the PSX-ACs? I know those are VERY fast. I debating what rating to get. Initially I thought 10A, as I still have several sets of passenger cars with power hungry lighting. They are on the list for upgrading to LEDs, but that going to be a bit down the road.
Well, they're still mechanical devices, so they won't have the speed of the PSX-AC boards. OTOH, it has never been proven that the difference between 50 microseconds and 20 milliseconds of overload makes a big difference. The PH180 bricks that we've used for years on our modular club modules and layout, as well as my use of them, have tripped within milliseconds, plenty fast for my taste. I can't attribute any losses of electronic modules to slow circuit breakers, so adding the PSX-AC boards doesn't seem warranted for me in my situation.
We could start a lengthy discussion on how quickly a breaker should open. Given that rarely, if ever, will the short (as opposed to the surge from a spark) go through the loco's electronics, how fast is fast enough? As I noted above, the PH-180 breaker is so fast that it can be a great pain in the wantaffle if you have, as I do, a large stable of rolling stock as much as 80 years old, with varying flange separation.
I don't count on slow circuit breakers to make up for deficiencies in my rolling stock! 
When I have a short on the tracks, I want the breaker to trip ASAP. Given that I have remote control of the transformer reset, it's easy to fix it from anywhere in the room, the solution is in my pocket.
Any power spikes are supposed to be dealt with by the TVS diodes.
Ouch!
When only a few cars have the problem, and only on 1 or 2 not-easily-reachable switches (where else), it gets hard to pinpoint & solve the problem
I did my best not to include any "non-reachable" switches. 
I have several that will be more of a challenge than others, but I can reach them all.
I didn't do well enough
. Also, I can't lean reach like I did when I was a kid in my 60s. It's interesting when you have identical switches, with some having the issue and others not. Hard to pinpoint the exact cause. Especially occurs when backing a long train through the curved section of an O72 switch. If I could eyeball the switch up close, I'd see the spark marks on the center rails and touch them with liquid insulator. But that's another topic
I'm still doing final "tuning" of the DZ-2500 switch machines. I have some lighter springs coming that I hope will fix the remaining few that stall trying to shove the switch rail through the outside rail on the switch.
Discussion of "tuning" switch machines would be highjacking this thread, even though it would be a valuable discussion. So I'll bite my tongue.
@gunrunnerjohn posted:Note for software that old, when you upgrade to 6.1 you will have to do a factory reset of both the remote and the TIU. That also means you lose all the engines, routes, etc. that are stored, you have to re-enter all your info, you're starting "factory fresh".
So the TIU and the remote both upgraded fine on the first try! However, the tutorials and youtube videos don't demonstrate or list a step for doing a factory reset, and I can't find how to do that? The remote now shows version 6.10, but it still shows all my old engines and settings, so it didn't re-set itself anyway. So I need somehow to reset both the remote and TIU? Thanks for the clarification.
The resets are in the SYSTEM system menu, when you get to the Remote or TIU configuration in the SYSTEM menu, select those and then scroll to the reset and press the thumbwheel.
found it! Ok, however, I just re-read the MTH website and it says to do this before upgrading the firmware, since I was coming from a 2.0 version. Oops. So what now? Just test it to see if it works, and if not, reload the firmware? (I did a factory reset of both remote and TIU after the upgrade from 2.0 to 6.10).
I'd just clear them and see what happens. I do believe they wanted you to do it before the upgrade, not sure if it matters.
Thanks! I'll give it a shot. Appreciate all your help.
GRJ, I see that some of the Airpax breakers are described as push-pull rather than press-to-reset. Does that mean that they can also be used as a switch? Hadn't seen that term applied to a breaker before.
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