What do I need to check the voltage on my track?

A basic multimeter can be had for about $20. Lowes or Radio Shack. 

For a little more fun, buy one of these.

Bill

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I got mine at one of those close out discount tool places. Was only like $9.00. AC. DC   Works great. For what you want to do the cheapest one you see will be fine. 

By the way if by chance you are running command with DCS, it has a built in meter for track voltage and signal strength. 

I like this little meter from Harbor Freight.  It's inexpensive and has all the basic functions and will measure AC current without breaking the wire, very handy around the layout.

6 Function Mini Digital Clamp Meter

John:

Thanks, I've been looking for an inexpensive clamp-on ammeter.  I was planning on being near Harbor Freight tomorrow so I'll stop in and buy one.

Bill 

Great little meter.  I have a Fluke as well, but it's in my shop, I keep this one here in my toolbox.  It's actually quite accurate, I was pleasantly surprised.

I also have the Harbor Frieght item pictured above..

Recommended. 

Harbor freight is not to far  (20 miles) I will get one tomorrow

Thanks

Brent

Just as a side note,when you check track voltage,it should be under load if you are checking for voltage drop. I purchased 2 cheap meters from Harbor Freight just for field use. Only problem was the test leads fell apart after a while.

Dale H

I just picked up yet another Harbor Freight multimeter for free today.  I have a bunch of them.  Since they come with a 9V battery installed, it is almost easier and just as cheap to get a new meter (when they are on sale or free with any purchase.)  They don't measure AC amps, but they do just about everything else!  I guess you could make a fullwave bridge adaptor at the test lead jacks to convert AC amps into DC amps, but you would get about 2 volts of drop.  (Yes, John, I have a Harbor Freight clamp-on meter too, but mine has an analog meter!)

Interesting to note that todays market supplies digital displays.  Older meters would have a deflection pointer and several multi-scales requiring some "head scratch'n" to figure the reading.  Most apprentices, that I worked with, had difficulty with meters with deflection pointer/scales.  Note most meters like the one pictured above, require a 9 volt battery for operation.  I usually have a spare.  Some will have protection fusing. You may want to explore this, and have a couple of spare fuses available, though most newer meters would most likely have automatic reseting devices.

This antique Sperry Snap meter measures AC Amps only.  There is an attachment that plugs to a wall outlet to measure amperage for cord supplied devices.   Maximum scale 300 amps, Minimum scale 6 amps.  Bottom 2 or 3 scales work well for AC model train amperage.  Note that is doesn't work for DC amps.  When using the largest scales the hair on the back of you knuckles also tends to give you an indication of the current flow. 

I have an old analog Sperry snap-on also, it also came with the little 10/1 reducer to measure low currents of plugged devices.  They do last forever...

With the new crew of electrician, I found this meter in the trash at the shop one day.  Apparently without a digital display it wasn't usable??      Vintage 1976

You gotta' love the younger generation.  

The HF meter uses a CR2032 battery, mine is a year old and the battery still lives on.  I do keep spares around, lots of stuff uses the same battery.

Power Monitor Board with 20 VAC voltmeters installed

I have added a Power Monitor Board for use with my MTH DCS system.  The Power Board has two identical circuit breaker boxes each having 20VAC voltmeters and pilot lamps.  The circuit breakers are fast acting 5A resettable circuit breakers. These boxes are fed from two Lionel KW transformers.

I purchased the voltmeters on Ebay.  About $5 each.

Output Power is provided to the FIXED and VARIABLE TIU power inputs.

Note 1: Power for turnouts (switches) and accessories is provide by separate power panels. 

Note 2: Power for the TIU is supplied by a separate MTH Z750 brick.

Or measure it on the fly where the train's actually running.  Just have to get the decals on this one and it's done.

That's the gadget, now I don't have to dig mine out.

Note that device works with modern meters as well, it's just a 10 turn coil inside the loop with a couple of outlets for 1:1 and 10:1 current measurements.

Was that one you made? Or one offered in past years from Lionel or some other?

If it was of your making, I would be interested in maybe a short (or long) how to in another post sometime if you would be so kind.

Looks very interesting and I think others would be interested as well.

Thanks

Don't forget your coupons from the Sunday paper.  20% off any item and a Free DMM as Dale M. mentions. 

I made this one, bought the meters on eBay.  The only complication was the meters had to have a totally isolated DC supply for power, so I had to use a special little isolated DC-DC supply to power them.

John, does anyone use a VCO (555 chip or whatever) to listen to a continuous tone changing pitch proportional to voltage?  So when the car goes over a bad section of track you hear a pitch shift.  Considering the parts cost would only be a few bucks I figure this could be a useful feature when the car goes through a tunnel, wherever you can't see the readout, or for intermittent track problems which might not "register" on a digital readout.

Never thought of that, but it would be a neat feature.  It shouldn't be that difficult to build, a function generator chip would probably be a one-chip solution except for the audio amp.

Probably the most important capability would be an on-off switch so it doesn't drive you crazy

Seriously though, if you (or anyone here) is interested we could start a topic to hash out the details.

Always interested in cool electronics projects.

I like that one John, I'll have to copy it for my MOW consist.

Hmmm.... I have these old analog 1mA meters in the lab...

That could make this very inexpensive, All I need is a diode and the right resistor......

I fooled around with DC meters, but I didn't get linear enough response for decent accuracy.  That's when I found these on eBay, they're AC meters, perfect for the job.

Here's one with poor labeling, I'm pretty sure it's a 20VAC meter.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-1-...;hash=item20c52d0b97

I'm very interested. I'm a greenhorn  when it comes to electronics, but have been trying to learn all I can. This is as much fun as playing with trains, IMO. Have learned a LOT here, but have a LONG way to go.

Was taking electronics courses about 40 or so years ago (what I really wanted to do) but needed money to support wife & kids and ended up in construction for the last 40 years. Now retired and trying to catch up!

Hope you & gunrunnerjohn will start up that new thread for this project! 

And thanks John for info on your voltage car. Would be interested in your constant voltage DC device also.