I am a newbie so I apologize for the simplicity of this question. I have a 180 brick for my power source and was wondering if this was okay to use for my Mth Itad and signals. I was not sure what voltage is needed to run the signals. I was further confused when the ITAD said not to use the track for power. I am only running Tmcc and thought that the track would then provide steady voltage.
[#welcome]to the forum. I think the track voltage associated with either command system is too high for the light bulbs in the signals. 12V should be about the maximum.
[#welcome][#welcome]
Welcome aboard. Good question. Here is what a Lionel Service Center near Cleveland told me. The 18 volts tends to burn up bulbs very quickly including lights in older engines and cars. Many times bulbs can be upgraded to a 18 volt bulb. I have done this in some passenger cars and lighted freight cars and it seems to work fine now.
I run my track using an 180 brick and TMCC. My accessories and signals work off of a K-Line transformer at 14 v. I get great results.
Another possibility is to put a diode in series with the lamp. This will reduce the voltage from the lamp’s point of view by about 30 percent; so 18 volts will act like about 13. If you do this to multiple lamps, it is a good idea to install the diode with opposite polarity in half the cases, to avoid too much of a direct-current load on the source.