Sorry in advance for the long post but I want to explain everything so you get a better idea of what happened.
I am in the early stages of building my HO layout. I just finished laying track in a staging area and a small section of the main. I’m using NCE Power Pro R DCC System for the layout.
I set up the staging area so that I have DPDT switches for each of the eight staging tracks. That will allow me to turn them on and off so when not in use any locos staged there won’t draw current until I want it to.
In 2006 I purchased a “Power Shield four” from Tony’s Train Exchange which has now been replaced with PSX four. The PS four is two PS two’s all on one board. I cut them apart so I now have two PS two’s so they can be located in different areas of the layout.
Anyway, I am using two of the four power shields as power districts for the staging areas which is four tracks each. So (1) Power Shield is used for four tracks and the other Power Shield for the other four tracks.
The way I wired it up was like this:
Power booster to the Main Line Power Bus with #14 wire.
From the spot where the #14 wire is soldered to the Main Line Bus I “Teed” off and connected to the Power Shield booster inputs 1 & 2 with #16 wire. That’s the largest guage wire that will fit the Power Shield.
I used #16 wire from the Power Shields 1A & 2A and 1B &2B DCC outputs to the switch pannel for my staging area. The switch pannel is split into two sections with four tracks each.
When I ran a loco it worked fine while on the main line but when it entered the staging area there was no power. All eight tracks were dead.
I thought I may have shorted something out or forgot to turn on the tracks or that the switches were positioned wrong. However, I had already r
The location of the Power Shield should make no difference at all. It sounds to me like you had it wired wrong or originally had some bad wire or a loose connection.
I thought that too, however, I had the PS inputs soldered to the board and used wire connectors like used on house outlets to join to the power bus.
The outputs on the PS were soldered to the board and the other end of the wire there is spade terminals screwed to a block terminal.
All I did was to untwist the wire connectors and hook them to the bypass wire (red to red & black to black) and I had spade terminal connectors attached to the other end of the bypas wire that I connected to the block terminal.
Then everything worked.
It is possible that for what ever reason, one or both of the solder joints where the wire was soldered to the board may have been a bad connection. I had to unsolder the output wires to get it to my work bench. They seemed to be soldered pretty good. No cold joints that I could tell.
Nope, makes no sense to me. Sounds like it should have worked the first way you had it connected. All I can figure is that there was something not visible just a little wrong or not connected that was “fixed” either on the bench or when it was re-installed on the layout. ??!?? Gremlins happen.
On another topic I noticed you were using DPDT switches for turning off the power? Why not just simple SPST switches?
I aggree, Gremlins do indeed happen. I must have had something hooked up wrong but the way I hooked up the bypass wire by unhooking and rehooking exactly the same leaves me wondering where I went wrong.
Actually they are three pole DT switches. I’m using three leg bipolar LED’s to show which track is activated (Green is active / Red is inactive). I already had them and didn’t have SPST switches so that’s what got used.
It definetly sounds like an input problem to the Powershield since none of the tracks had power. If it had been an output problem only one section would have been impacted. I didn’t quite follow the comment about untwisting the wire connector and connecting it back. It sounds like that was the problem. Where you connect to the bus or booster should make no difference. If you have the problem again try shorting the input wires and see if the booster trips. If so then you know the input wiring is good. If not, troubleshoot the input wiring.
On the wire connector confusion, I used wire connectors that are used in house wiring. The kind that you slip over two or more wires then twist the connector sort of like a nut on a bolt.
I basically disconnected the wire from the input side of the Power Shield and connected it to a jumper / bypass wire all the while maintaining the same polarity (black to black and red to red). Then the staging tracks all worked.
Last night I went back and hooked everything back up like it was at first with the exception of using a short #14 wire from a spot on the main power bus that was even further down the line but closer to where the Power Shield was located.
Everything worked fine. The only thing I can think of is like you said, it had to be an input problem. That’s the only thing that makes sense.
Oh well…it’s working fine now!
Thanks for all the input
Now I have to go back and install a terminal block coming off the booster and attach the Power Shield to it. As it is hooked up now, if there should be a short on the main it will kill the power going to the Power Shield. I should have done that last night. One more night under the layout isn’t going to be my last! LOL!