 Joined: 21/09/2012(UTC) Posts: 1,730 Location: Toronto
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I have often wondered if it would be possible to increase the power that goes onto my track to compensate for the power fluctuations in my house. To that end, I went onto the Marklin website and in the process of looking for a booster found out about a free booster recall/upgrade: Free booster upgradeThe article is Greek to me but it may be of use to some of you. (Chromium translated it for me into English.) My question: If I were to add a booster to my layout - I use two MS2 controllers - would I get a higher speed from my locos or simply end up frying all my decoders?    To be clear, I have no doubt that the electricity fluctuates in my house and I see it with the locos. Tonight the Ice 2 was travelling at about the same speed it was when I first bought it a week ago and possibly even faster. In the last couple of days instead, it was visibly slower. A mortal sin for me, of course. Any words of wisdom? Thank you. |
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 Joined: 20/07/2007(UTC) Posts: 809 Location: Leopold, Victoria
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You could try running a UPS to stablise your power. |
Legless
Era's 1 to 111,C track,k track |
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 Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,771 Location: New Zealand
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As digital systems put 18 or 19 volts constantly on the track, adding a booster will not make your trains run any faster or slower. The booster allows you to run more trains on a given section of track.
If you only have MS2 controllers, then you can't make use of a booster as you can't connect a booster to a MS2. You need a Central Station for that.
As Legless suggests it would be better to use an UPS to stabilise your incoming power.
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 1 user liked this useful post by Bigdaddynz
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Joined: 16/02/2004(UTC)
Posts: 15,443
Location: DE-NW
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Originally Posted by: baggio  To be clear, I have no doubt that the electricity fluctuates in my house and I see it with the locos. With switching-mode power supplies there shouldn't be any fluctuation on the output side. If there are fluctuations even with SMPS then there is something seriously wrong on the input side (voltage at the wall outlets). A UPS could fix that. As discussed several times before: using a Delta Control as a booster would give you a higher track voltage and some trains would be able to go faster while others would keep the same speed. Higher track voltage increases the wear on motors and light-bulbs. You can get the same effect by using a power pack with a higher output voltage for your MS2. The booster recall program is a different story: they used a cost-optimised scheme for the first booster generation. The design was so cheap, it was impractical to use. They came up with a new design and replace old boosters free of charge. Boosters with the cheap design can also be found inside the CS2 60213, inside early CS2 60214, and - if speculation is correct - inside the new CS3 60226. Never make the same mistake twice. With the 60226 they made a variation to the mistake, leading to the effect that newer 60214 will work in Master/Slave mode without restrictions while older 60214 have restrictions when used in Master/Slave mode. In the last century Märklin were famous for their clear and simple system. |
Regards Tom --- "In all of the gauges, we particularly emphasize a high level of quality, the best possible fidelity to the prototype, and absolute precision. You will see that in all of our products." (from Märklin New Items Brochure 2015, page 1) ROFLBTCUTS  |
1 user liked this useful post by H0
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 Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,475 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: H0 Originally Posted by: baggio To be clear, I have no doubt that the electricity fluctuates in my house and I see it with the locos. With switching-mode power supplies there shouldn't be any fluctuation on the output side. If there are fluctuations even with SMPS then there is something seriously wrong on the input side (voltage at the wall outlets). A UPS could fix that. I agree with this, I am surprised the speed varied enough to notice as the mains changed. The wall wart supplies like those used for the ms2 will operate from 90V to 250V with stable output voltage.
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1 user liked this useful post by kiwiAlan
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,475 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: H0 that newer 60214 will work in Master/Slave mode without restrictions while older 60214 have restrictions when used in Master/Slave mode.
Do you know what hardware revision does not have the restriction?
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Joined: 17/09/2006(UTC) Posts: 18,771 Location: New Zealand
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Joined: 28/11/2007(UTC) Posts: 8,228 Location: Montreal, QC
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I am not quite sure what you are referring to by power fluctuations in your house. Ontario Hydro has a pretty stable network and your main breaker should be providing your wiring with a standard voltage. If you are experiencing brown outs or similar, say, when you turn on an appliance, there may be too much plugged in to that particular circuit. What I would recommend is that you try running an extension from another room (on another circuit) to see whether that solves the problem. If yes, you may decide to call an electrician to install a separate circuit or to move the outlets in that room to a new circuit with it's own breakers and less of a load.
I do not think that voltage fluctuations on the mains would greatly disrupt the output of a model train transformer AC or DC unless the entire circuit (mains) was being disturbed (as described above).
Regards
Mike C
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1 user liked this useful post by mike c
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Joined: 23/07/2014(UTC) Posts: 8,475 Location: ENGLAND, Didcot
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Originally Posted by: Bigdaddynz 4.33 and above. Thanks. Alan
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