i have asked this question on another forum and cannot seem to get a satisfactory responce. my equipment consists of only lionel. a legacy engine, a legacy control, 2-180 watt transformers, tpc400 connected directly to fastrack in 12 locations, no track blocks. this means i have 360 watts at 20 amps of power. now the question is : is there enough short protection built in to the tcp400 or do i need to add voltage spike controls and 20 amp fuses? one of the suggestions was to add direct lockons. with 12 locations it would cost over $400 and the direct lockon is only good for 7 amps according to lionel literature. i would think that the lionel engineers would have put sufficent protection into the tpc400 as not to cause computer boards in the trains to burn out if a short happens. of course i could be wrong and i don’t want to find out the hard way. please advise. thank you. rj conklin.
The TPC’s internal breakers are fine. Both the PH bricks ad TPC’s will fire off pretty quickly so you don’t need any more fuses or breakers.
Re the direct lockon, nothing you can do about the current limit, it was designed to hook a PowerHouse directly, not multiple PowerHouses which is what the TPC does. BTW, you can use the lockon to feed a distribution block to feed the track thus using only one locon per power supply.
If you don’t use the direct lockon then you do want to install a TVS on the output side of the TPC. The real question on the TVS devices is why aren’t these installed across the power feeds on the locomotives since these are the delicate electrical devices you are realy trying to protect.
thanks chuck. so if i install a 20 amp tvs to the tpc400 before the 12 feed lines this should be sufficent?
Bob Nelson has posted information on appropriate TVS’s a number of times. The clamping voltage is the key.
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/145064/1610149.aspx#1610149
http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/102002/1185776.aspx#1185776
again, thank you chuck this answers all my questions.
I use a TPC400 with 2 X 180W PH’s. When I have a derailment the 15 amp breakers on both PH’s trip rather than the 20 amp on the TPC. I’ve had my TPC before Lionel bought them out and haven’t had the breaker trip once in the several years.
roger, have you had any tmcc or legacy train engines have electrical damage after the breakers tripp? do you use a tvs-4 for surge protection? as you know these legacy engines are expensive.
I don’t have any Legacy engines, just TMCC. Knock on wood I’ve had no problems. Also luckly few derailments.
thank you, roger b