Hello All,
I have a question. I purchased 3 of Lionel's yard lights which each just has 2 connection for power and common.
I want to control these via my MTH AIU unit. I have tested wiring them in series and correctly
connected them to my AIU per regular AIU accessory connectivity instructions and it works meaning when connected
to one ACC port they all light up. My question is, does anyone see any sort of overload issue here connecting
all 3 to the same AIU port and not individually?
Thank You
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The only way to know for sure is to measure the current that the yard lights are drawing. The AIU relays are good for 4 amps--- If you had posted what the lionel part number is I could give a definitive yes or no--- You say that it works, so I'd be cautiously optomistic that you are drawing less than 4 amps.
You could energize a 10 amp relay with the AIU,then let the relay contacts power the lights. 4 amps is good for about 48 watts at 12 volts,so maybe 15 light bulbs at 2.5 watts each. Hard to know if the 4 amp contacts on the AIU are for resistance or inductive load so the amount of bulbs could be less.
Dale H
Hi,
Thanks for the responses.
Here is the item:
#70 Yard Lights (3), Lionel, LIO14071
These are just plain bulbs and there's no issue with current consumption using the AIU, I can't imagine those drawing 4 amps, even all of them together!
I looked up the bulb, they draw 130MA, so all three are less than half an amp.
Cool thanks Gunrunnerjohn and all who have helped out.
Have a good day.
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