Frustration is much more accurate (adding some words that’d make a sailor blush!), than “issues”.
I’m a complete noob to lighting/electrical. I have been “playing” with trains for almost 40 years…mostly just the “village” under the x-mas tree.
I am inhereting all my Dads HO goods…and before doing my big HO layout, I decided to do a small layout in N, to “figure things out”, before commiting to something much larger.
The subject (2’ x 4’), as it sits right now…
The issue…all my lights died! I had everything working, on a temporary basis (pulling power from the “accessories” on the controller…old school controller, not DCC).
I had all the street lamps and lamps on the station platform spliced together and ran into a Just Plug hub. Interior lights (5 total, 1 in station, 2 each in other buildings) also spliced together, into the hub. I ordered the “Expansion hub”, as well as another “lighting hub”, so I could spread things out a bit, and decided to “play with trains” this evening. When I plugged it in (before adding the new goodies), the only thing that worked was the crossing signal.
Here’s what I’m working with now (it’s a mess, but everything did work, when it was all plugged into the single “lighting hub”…until it didn’t!)
Did I screw up by not installing resistors? Are my lights toast )need to be replaced) ???
[#welcome] to the forum. Your posts are delayed in moderation for a bit. If you don’t try to spam us into buying essential oils, it goes away.
I don’t use the system, but it looks like you can run 4 LED’S from each port. There is a non replaceable 1000 ma fuse. How many street lights and station lights do you have?
Do you have a volt meter? The question is going to come down to are the led’s burned out or is the problem that there is no power coming out of the Just Plug unit.
Are your lights LEDs or are they bulbs ? If bulbs, do you know what voltage the bulbs are ? All this needs to be known before connecting a random power supply.
The 3 on the station platform are from a Woodland scenics set. Very fine wires…came with a “splicer plug”.
I have 9 street lamps (from Evemodel. I ripped a wire out of the 10th, like a brute!). Same fine wires. So…12 total, spliced to one hub port via “splicer plug”. And again, 5 interior Just Plug LEDs, spliced into one hub port.
I did test a spare interior light(same type as in the buildings) in all the ports…works fine. Tells me the hubs are in good shape!
I did get the specific Just Plug power supply…but I am affraid it might be too late?
The plan I had for the new stuff (8 ports)
Flashing crossing signal(still working).
9 street lamps.
3 platform lamps.
2 interior light(building 1)
2 interior lights(building 2)
1 interior light(station)
5 LED lighted cars (have not tried them yet…same fine wires as lamps)
spare
Sorry for being “all over the place”…this is turning my noodle into soup! I assumed that the hub would “regulate” voltage going to the lights, and I saw no mention of using resistors for any of the Just Plug stuff. I did use a resistor on the crossing signal(as per the instructions), and that is the only thing still working. Which seems to be telling me that everything else should have had a resistor(???). But, now that I have the Just Plug specific power supply…do I need resistors…will it hurt anything if I do have resistors uneccassarily?
I’ve just started using the Just Plug It products. I believe the resistors are in the lighting hub. What I read was that each port can handle either up to 3 street lights or one building light. If I understood your comments correctly I think you overloaded the port with all the splices you connected to it. I suggest you remove everything from the lighting hub and reconnect just 3 street lights or 1 building light per port. Hope this helps.
I have a bunch of the JustPlug products myself. I also have a lot of non-JP items too. My suggestions are as follows:
Run the street lights that aren’t JP on a circuit by themselves in some sort of parallel circuitry. If you read the JP instructions, it suggests not to run non-JP products with the hubs. Find a resistor to tweek the brightness to a comfortable level.
I presume the crossings are also trying to run off the hubs. If so, invest in either a Circutron board or other control circuits for prototype function. They are better designed for that function. They can also run without the boards. In any event they again should be on a separate circuit.
The separate controls can be controlled with either an Atlas Connector (yellow switches) or some regular micro on-off switches.
The rest of the plan looks good but you might double check the draw of the cars. I haven’t used the JP cars so I know nothing when it comes to them.
For my 1st go…I don’t hate it! There is plenty that I don’t really care much for, though. The whole purpose of this was to learn some thing…I have certainly done that! Given the size, some things just have to be impracticle! I still can’t wrap my head around electrical (in this type of situation) though…it’s “FM” (F’n Magic) to me!
At this point, I think my “big project” will be smaller modules for under the x-mas tree (that can be taken apart and fit into storage bins), rather than the big hulking mass I dream of…that would only be a nightmare for my wife and family to have to deal with someday.
This project is also for a change of pace, from my main focus…
Here’s a link to my “rails” album, for anyone interested…
