DR4018 Power Supply

[Davidl66]

I have just purchased a DR4018 to drive 8x PECO and Seep solenoid point motors. I understand that, for best performance, I should use a power supply external to the DCC bus and that the range documented in the manual is 12-18V DC or 12-18V AC, 3 amp max draw.

 

I have an old power supply lurking around which is 18.5V 3.5A DC output. Could this be used safely with the DR4018 or is the extra 0.5V going to break it?

[WIMorrison]

That is not break it, but you are on the limit of the what the DR4018 will power - especially with Peco and Seep motors - switch turnout individually and you should be ok

[Davidl66]

Thank you for that. I have been using ADS-8fx but I broke one of the outputs when I was dabbling with frog polarity and suffered a short. I know the DR4018 does not have any frog polarity facility. I have been doing the polarity from the switch on the seep motors or using  Gaugemaster DCC80s. I did have pairs of points for crossings being controlled from a single ADS-8fx output but realise I cannot do that with the DR4018. I am controlling everything from JMRI via DCC++ and was going to insert a short wait between the crossing point changes.

[Crosland]

4 hours ago, Davidl66 said:

I have an old power supply lurking around which is 18.5V 3.5A DC output. 

 

Should be OK so long as it really is regulated DC and not 18.5V nominal from a simple transformer + rectifier + smoothing capacitor. The low load voltage could be quite a bit higher in that case.

[Davidl66]

Just wanted to round this topic off with an update. The power supply I am using is an HP one from an old laptop so my guess is that it is suitably regulated.

 

The power supply is working and I see no side effects on the DR4018. Setting up a small route in JMRI to switch crossovers works well with the default delay of 250ms between triggering outputs.

 

Thanks again for the help.