I just unpacked my Digitrax Zephyr and 3 UP5’s. I’m sticking with non-wireless for now. I like the fact that when the throttles are plugged into the UP5’s it saves the battery - what I missed was how to wire the power source from one UP5 to the next. I understand one PS12 can power multiple UP5’s but wire from one to the next from the +connection. Has anyone powered multple UP5’s with one power source? Tips and suggestions please. Thanks.
I am no expert, but I just ran the cable from one to another kind of willy nilly. I was told it makes no difference. So far it hasn’t. I also stuck one IR in.
cccpro, if you are only using 3 UP5’s, you do not need to add a PS12 transformer to power them. If you were running 10 or 20, then I would worry about it. Loconet has plenty of power to run a few UP5’s without any problem. If you were using a Radio or Infrared throttle, then having power to your UP5’s and UR90 or UR91 is more important as it can be left on when you power down the system and save your batteries in the Radio throttles.
If you realy want to add a seperate power source to your UP5’s, it is done by pluging in the PS12 (or other 12 wall wart) to one of the UP5s and then running an 22 to 24 guage feeder wire between the UP5s. There is a small hole in the back (right in the middle) that already has solder in it for connecting the units. The Loconet connections have the ground and complete the loop to the PS12.
Some info and a photo can be found here: http://www.loystoys.com/digitrax/up5.html
As Ray points out so well, the UP5 can be powered. The description on the Tony’s link explains it. If you notice on the Tony’s site it talks about installing a short solid core 22AWG wire into the hole. My advice, do this on the work bench before you instal the panel. Otherwise, like me you will have to remove the UP5 from your facia since it is nigh on impossible to reach this when it is installed.
Absolutely!
cccpro, If you are always going to run tethered (ie: not using infrared or radio) there is no need to use a battery in the throttle. You can go from on UP5 to another and when you plug in, it will resume whatever it was doing.