Having adopted DCS years ago and following the practice of adding fuses to every channel I figured this was the most econimical way to solve the problem of damaging a TIU. My transformer features 2 very fast 12 amp breakers. I basically added Radio Shack 10 amp fast blows to every TIU in port. I run 3 TIU’s but don’t use every channel. Although the wiring and fuses setup was neatly done they weren’t that accessible. Not being one to label anything I do it would often involve some headscratching to figure out which one was blown.
You can view the product as well as the instructions. They retail for around 38 dollars. I purchased mine from a local shop http://www.tracksidesales.com/. I liked the fact that by adding jumper wires you can adjust the amperage rating. They also are designed to accept 12 gauge wires. They have many features that can be used but I opted to just use the breaker and a toggle switch to reset it. One note. The screw terminals are only present to hook up track wiring or change the amp rating. The others are optional. The picture clearly shows this but not the instructions. I just opted to solder the leads for the toggle that resets it.
As far as performance. I set mine for 8 amps. Shorted the track and it instantly shut down. The 10 amp fast blow still remained fine at the other end. Someday I’ll get around to removing it. Reset as advertised in 2 seconds. Seeing I never have a small derailment I went with the toggle setup. A pushbutton will work as well. Leave your toggle in the on position. Short the rails and they remain off. Get everything back on track. Move the toggle to the off position and it will power back up. Putting the toggle back up will rearm it. If left off you will be back to the 2 second res
A good friend of mine builds these. He used to build and maintain tools for the IBM chip plant in Essex Junction, so he knows his stuff. This company is affiliated with QSI Solutions.
Looks good. Built my own fast acting breaker box. One little arc and it trips that breaker. Press the button and it is reset. Scott’s Odds and Ends has them now. Sounds like you are doing a godo job protecting the electronics.
I have one and love it. In fact it was so fast to break the circuit that a slight spark going through my gargraves switchs would set it off. A quick call and it was sent back to reprogram for gargraves and ross switches. Works super now. It is still fast enough that my lionel Z’s ,tmcc power supplies do not even have time to hum louder with a direct short. I have mine set to the 15 amp setting as at times the 10 car passenger cars all with lights along with the engine must have gone over 8 amps as it would reset. Now at 15 all is fine.
Mine right now is protecting my passenger and staging yard and is set at 8 amps. It works well and I plan to invest in a few more. The unit also features a detection run by photcells that will also trip power. The fact that both the passenger and staging yard feature stub tracks. This may be worth looking into and wiring up.
My mainline is run off of 1 ,12 amp throttle. Very seldom have a derailment here except when experimenting with Kadee couplers on scale passenger cars. I think I blew 6 fuses in a matter of minutes. The Powershield can be setup to have a 12 amp breaker. My transformer features a pretty fast resettable breaker. Only problem when it trips it takes about a minute or more to cool off and reset. I’d prefer the Powershield to do all the work as it resets fast. When I get it up and running I’ll report back. I want to see which one trips first on a derailment and also which one trips first on simply an overload. I only have one mainline but it’s capable of running 3 trains. Even with 2 trains featuring lighted cars it’s not enough to push it over the top. What does is that if everyone decides to turn there smoke units on. Multiple diesels and a couple of steamers can use up 4 amps easily just on the smoke units. I could set the unit at 8 and limit what I run. But I don’t want to be tied to that figure for motive or passenger power. I really want to get everything squared away as far as power requirements so I can move on and get some opperatting sessions going.