Hello,
I just installed LED lighting on a consist of 3 cars and now I am facing a strange problem. When I place these cars on the track and supply power via my MS (connected to a 42VA transformer), the lights flicker for a few seconds and then the MS goes to 'Stop' mode. I have 3 other consists with lighting on the layout. Normally, when I turn on the MS, the lighting on all the cars on the layout flicker 3 - 4 times with a slight clicking sound and then, the power comes on.

In this case, the flickering continues much longer and the power shuts off.

I have a pickup shoe and ground spring on car 1. I use a rectifier before the LED strips. Then I use CC couplers to supply power to the other cars. The problem does not happen when I have only car #1 on the track. When car 2 and 3 are connected to the consist, the problem starts. If I add car #2 and 3 after the MS has powered on, it works fine.

I have a similar arrangement on my other consists and they all work just fine. I am not seeing any shorts or anything like that.

Would it be that the MS/42VA transformer has reached it's limit and is unable to power all these things? BTW, I have 10 digital locos on the layout and about 12 cars with lighting, each with 2 strips.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

I don't have capacitors in any of the lighted cars. Like Lutz mentioned, I suspect that I just exceeded the current limit of the MS. I do have resistors on some of the consists that have LEDs to reduce the brightness of the lights.

Could you please tell me what my options are to boost power to my tracks. Do I need to switch to a CS/Ecost 500001/Commander? Or can I use some kind of booster with my MS?

I was planning to buy a CS/Ecost 500001/Commander but didn't expect to have to buy it so soon considering the fact that my layout is still relatively tiny.

Dumb Question - I have a spare MS. If I use that as a slave, would that help my situation temperorily? I would like to have a temperory solution to my problem so that I can wait for the CS2 and then decide between the CS2/Ecost 500001/Commander after reading the reviews. Before I spend $500 to $800, I would like to see which is the best before buying.

Thanks for your help.

Fred,
I confirmed that it is an overload problem. If I remove one or 2 locos, then everything works fine.

I do have a spare 66045 and a spare transformer. But I am not able to find the wiring diagram for wiring it along with a MS to act like a booster. Could you please tell me where I can find it?

Here is a diagram that shows how to use a 66045 as a booster for a MS (blue box at bottom of first page).

One note: you have to use the right stop position on the Delta Control (this is wrong on the drawing).

To enable the booster mode, bridge the two grey connectors and turn the Delta Control to the right stop position.

You should use the ugly box™ only as a programming track where you register mfx locos.
Use center rail insulaters and center rail rocker if you need a connection between the tracks fed from the ugly box™ and the tracks fed from the Delta Control.

MS and boosted section should be isolated. In the scheme there is an elaborate transition section; I've no experience with that. I have never combined MS and 66045 boosted sections. I would'nt take risks in that combination. What I did was have the MS powering a program track and feed the signal (red and brown) from that to the 66045 booster(s). Before I had a CS I used 2 66045 boosters; each on their own section, isolated, but no special things as rockers.
BTW: the power deliverence by 66045 is much better than MS (be it 1.2 or 1.9 A).
Q 2: the MS has to be fed somehow, by a trafo separeted from anything else. But you don't need much power. I fed my 2 MS with an old 16 VA trafo regulated down to exact 16 V; MS kept working even on 13 V!
QW 3: red plug and blue plug can not be connected as the blue plug is the signal input and the red plug is the signal output!
Regards, Henk.

So if I understand this correctly, the track connected to the MS should not even be attached to the layout and used only to register MFX loks. And I am guessing that while I control the trains using the MS, the signals go via the Delta controller to the track.

I think I finally understood it. Thanks for all your help.

Really appreciate your help and the clear explaination with the pictures.

I do not! The terminal block is just to show where the connetion to the trafo is.

Correct.

Per.

I don't know if it should be considered normal; but mine does the same

Per.