I have been looking around for a power supply (transformer) that you can plug into the wall and the output is 12 volts DC, and also has screw terminals.
This is for my town lights. I have them all tied together via main power lines under the layout board. Basically just like a bus for DCC. I would really like to keep the wiring simple and not have to split up the town light bus wires and have multiple wall units.
Looking at various sources, I’ve found lots of 12 volt DC wall mounts with screw terminals. The only problem is most seem to be rated at 500ma (or 1/2 watt). I’m worried that this is not going to be enough wattage to handle all the multiple lights on the layout.
Has anyone found a good power supply that has a 12 volt DC output with screw terminals that also has enough Watts to handle multiple bulbs on a layout?
Keep in mind running 12 volt bulbs at 12 volts will make the lights unrealistically bright, and cause them to burn out sooner. I use an old DC power pack from MRC to power lights, and find it usually looks best at about 2/3rds full power.
If you found a suitable power supply but it has wires instead of screw terminals, just us it. Get a 2-position terminal block. Screw the transformer wires to one side, and you now instantly have screw terminals to attach the layotu wiring to.
Most of the bulbs are 16 - 18 volt. But I prefer 12 as the power supply. And I much prefer DC for bulbs.
I haven’t found any non screw terminal version with a lot of amps either. But using a terminal strip is a super easy solution if I can’t find one with screw terminals on it. In fact I have lot of terminal strips for the building lights. Makes it very easy to replace bulbs if they ever burn out.
I have used a power pack transformer in the past, but I was hoping to clean up the wiring a bit. The MRC transformer I have been using has a 20 volt fixed output and that required lots of resistors [:S] I don’t trust using the variable output. If I happen to bump the throttle all the bulbs could go out pretty quickly.
One of the things that you sort of need to do is figure out how much current all of your bulbs require. This will then tell you what size of power supply you need.
Assuming that your bulbs are wired in parallel, find out how much current each bulb draws. Usually this is on the package of the bulb. You shouldn’t have to measure them. Anyway, find the bulb that uses the most current and multiply that by the number of bulbs you have. If each bulb draws 20ma (0.020 amp) and you have 12 bulbs, 0.020 times 12 equals 0.24 amps or 240ma. In that case, a 500ma 12VDC supply would work. (1 amp = 1000ma.)
Once you have the current figure of all the bulbs, then you can look for a wall-wart or other DC supply that can supply that amount of current or a little more.
Mine are 4 amp. They come with coax plugs, not screw terminals, but it’s simple enough to clip the wire and attach it to a barrier strip, or you could get a matching jack, wire that to the barrier strip and then you’d have a plug-in unit.
A word of caution about these low-cost supplies: They do not have circuit breakers. Instead, they have a one-time fuse, and the units are sealed so the fuse is not really replaceable. Protect your investment with a cheap fuse block and fuse from Radio $hack, or order them from the supplier when you get the power supply. Trust me. Eventually, even those 30 milliamp bulbs add up, and before you know it you’ll be pushing the limit of whatever supply you buy.
Order the fuse block and some fuses at the same time. I’d go 1 amp below the rating of the power supply.
I was doing some wire testing a couple of weeks back. I was trying to find a loose wire, so I had the power on. Poof. I shorted some wires. Thanks to the fuse, I was back up with only the small cost of a fuse lost. Even if you’re careful not to overload the circuit with too many bulbs, one careless touch of wires in all that rat’s nest that most of us have for under-layout decor can toast a supply.