Knew here today; not sure if I am in the right discussion group but…
Came across this trainpower powermatic throttle that dates back to the '80s. Anyone familiar with one of these or in hooking one up to track to power n scale?
Never heard of it, and can’t find any - can you post some pictures? It doesn’t help that Powermatic is a brand of woodworking tools, and Trainpower is a model of MRC’s power packs.
If it’s transistoriezed, it’s usable today. If it’s just a rheostat - it’s not going to work well with modern locos with low current motors. A good clue to that would be if it says anything on it about HO or N scale, because back in the day, an HO rheostat power pack could not control N scale locos - they drew too little current compared to HO and just ran away. If it specifies a scale, it’s likely not transistorized.
–Randy
I’ve tried all different terms and wording trying to find this, nothing.
I have no clue what your talking about.
Mike.
To All,
Could be the Pacemaric Throttle, descrbed by Mr. Peter Thorne, published plans etc in a Kalmbach book, Electronic Projects for Model Railroading…
Just a thought,
Dredgeboater
Now that I found. Trainpower Pacematic throttle
Trainpower pacematic throttle model pmt-1 type 2 kit-needs soldering & assembly | Sportscards.com
Looks like a fairly simple early transistor throttle. Does seem to be a commercial kit of the Thorne throttle in his book. This hshould operate anything HO scale or smaller. Not sure what the specs say but with limited heatsinking on the main transistor, definitely under 1 amp.
–Randy
What a blast from the past. I had one of these kits. I never assembled it. I was given an MRC Cab Control 55, and lost my need for it.
I wonder what happened to it.
-Kevin
A little more discussion of early transistor throttles:
http://www.sumidacrossing.org/Musings/files/140202_A_Short_History_of_Transistor_Throttles.php
Hello, I have five of these Trainpower Pacematic Throttle PMT-1 units that I used to use with a fairly extensive HO layout. The throttle worked well with the older open motors of PFM or hobbytown units as well as with those smaller closed can motors.
I believe that they could be purchased in kit form or as built units. I soldered 4 of them together.
They had a rotary throttle, 1-switchable momentum, 2-direction, & 3 brake /quick service brake. & I’m pretty sure that it had low speed pulse that faded out at about 50% throttle.
It has literally been since about 1985 since I hooked them up though and I can’t seem to find the instruction sheet for connection info.
There are 5 colored wires in the cable, Black and White are for the output to the track. But my issue is that there are three other wires for the input end. It has an option of some to be able to be hooked up to AC via input through a bridge rectifier but mine were setup for fixed DC input. Red, Orange and Green with red and green being the input wires for the DC. The green appears to be the positive and the red the negative. (I’ve yet to figure out the orange wire. It could be a fixed 12v output. ) I do know that these were being made in the early 1980’s and were priced at about $25 each. and came out of Vienna, Virginia. You could buy them as kits or pre-assembled with or without a bridge rectifier for 112V AC input.
Tom / Bilbo_Baggs