I just received and tested a new Tony’s Trains PSX-AR mutifunction board. It is designed to work as a circuit breaker with QSI-type sound decoder engines, among other things.
The EB3 and PS4 can’t reset sound engines having high inrush currents, as I (and many) found, without the addition of bypass bulbs or some other devices. The Power Shields work, but require a high trip current setting of 4 amps. The new PSX has logic which enables it to work at a much lower trip current setting.
I used my NCE Powerhouse Pro as source, and set the PSX trip current to the lowest setting of 1.27 amps. I started with one idling BLI engine and used both direct shorts and 10 ohm shorts. After a short of any duration, the PSX would reset in about 2.5 seconds. Two engines, three, four, five, and even six, same result. Then I tried running four of them; they would be running again less than three seconds after a short was removed. The PSX seems to handle charging the capacitors on sound decoders as if they were not there.
Of course, the importance of being able to use a low trip current setting is to decrease the likelihood of damaging heating with a partial short. I’ve been using Power Shields, but will replace them with PSX’s as soon as I can.
Hal