Dcc concpets suppressor

[Chris1974]

HI sorry if this has been asked before. I'm just putting a bus in for my points and need to install a suppressor as occasional if a short occurs resets all the point motors back to factory settings!! Cant find any instruction how to wire it into the bus wire? Any help appreciated...thanks Chris.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Chris1974

[Bob83a]

See this earlier topic

 

DCC BUS Terminators

By Guest Moria, May 20, 2012 in DCC Help & Questions 

[Sol]

The pack it comes in, does say to connect the two wires to the bus wires

Edited June 11, 2019 by Sol
doubled up image

[Phil S]

What has this device  to do with protecting against a short circuit???

Simply buy a miniature circuit breaker with a suitable current rating. Eg 1A. 2A or 3A ** will protect an accessory bus, whilst a PSX or similar intelligent circuit breaker will protect track busses / track sub districts beyond them.

 

** depending on the response speed of the circuit breaker and the type of point motor or drive modules you use, and whether the point operating power is taken from the DCC bus or from a separate power rail eg 16Vac.

 

( And since the DCC signal is AC .... Their use of different colour wires was purely for manufácturing convenience.  ...NOT to be confused with mains ac  where fusing /  circuit breakers etc should all be fitted in the 'same or 'live'   wiring rather than 'neutral' because

Edited June 12, 2019 by Phil S

[WIMorrison]

I think the theory is that it prevent spikes that are allegedly caused on the DCC bus when a short circuit occurs damaging stuff, not that this will prevent short circuits

[RAF96]

If you have separate bus for Track and Points under control of separate controllers, then a derail will not spike the accessory decoders.

 

Both bus can be run from the same controller by way of circuit breakers for protection as suggested by others. 

[RFS]

Best solution is to have two separate buses - one for track control and one for accessories. You only need a circuit breaker on the track bus (point motors don't cause shorts) so the accessory bus can bypass the CB. If you have a track short, then the accessory bus is protected from that, plus you will still be able to change points as often it's points set the wrong way that cause shorts.

 

If you have Cobalt motors, and are using them to switch the polarity of your frogs (assuming the points are electrofrog), then you mustn't use the in-built frog feed from the Cobalt as otherwise that will power the frog from the accessory bus. You will need to use one of the independent switches on the Cobalt fed from the track bus. 

[Phil S]

40 minutes ago, RFS said:

Best solution is to have two separate buses - one for track control and one for accessories. You only need a circuit breaker on the track bus (point motors don't cause shorts) so the accessory bus can bypass the CB.

Phil:  A parallel question: Just because your immersion heater, cooker and fridges etc don't normally cause shorts - would you be prepared to operate them without circuit protection??? 

Similarly - a 'standard' miniature circuit breaker - as I suggested, on the 'accessory bus'  is there to protect against faults WHICH MAY OCCUR on THAT bus ... however 'unlikely' ....   Something faster acting, and intelligent in its current analysis, such as a PSX, is more appropriate to the track bus.

Of course, it MAY be that your accessory bus has no exposed or vulnerable wiring- such as the 2 conductors being adjacent to each other at terminal blocks etc 8-)    WITHOUT the additional circuit breaker on the accessory bus, the only option is for the central controller to cut-out in the event of a fault occuring  - resulting in a total loss of service  (just like SouthWest Railways daily excuse emails)  ,,, AND THIS MIGHT NOT BE UNtil a fault current in excess of 3-5A is flowing.

IF your NORMAL current on the Accessory bus is only 1A .... then an unchecked 3A may be doing damage somewhere  .... and its a low cost to add a miniature (push button resettable) breaker of  1 or 2Amp rating.   Fault-finding is then made much easier - as only the accessory bus will have lost power, and trains continue to entertain visitors....  instead of a TOTAL shutdown !   And if your points are powered from a separate POWER bus (eg16Vac) - but DCC controlled - they would also be completely dead...

Prevention is cheaper and better than ....

 

Inbuilt diagnostics make fault finding and operation much easier

[Junctionmad]

Very unlikely a electro mechanical circuit breaker will act before the  booster /command station cutout acts 

[Phil S]

1 hour ago, Junctionmad said:

Very unlikely a electro mechanical circuit breaker will act before the  booster /command station cutout acts 

Phil: I did mention that it would be 'slow acting' in comparison to a PSX:  The example I gave was of a steady-state 'fault current' of about 2 - 5 Amps where only 1 Amp would normally be taken (an example from one of my layouts where all 30+ points are 'powered' and operated via Train Tech CDU modules), and there are a number of dcc-controlled 'accessories'  which are therefore powered from the DCC bus .... ALL control of ALL features on the layout is via DCC

This includes moving cars and cyclists with Magnorail -( controlled as if a loco, but on the accessory bus), a Carousel, and falling tree,  H0f railway system via Busch DCC module.....   all with wiring passing from 1 board to another, and therefore all 'at risk' of a fault.

WITHOUT a circuit breaker, a fault WILL stop the entire layout - but no longer.

[young37215]

With a power BUS in excess of 30M, I have bought a pair of DCC Concepts bus suppressors and am about to install them. The power connections read Black and Red, am I correct in viewing the red connection as positive?

 

There are no instructions that I can find with the suppressors and nothing I can find on the DCC Concepts website. 

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2022 by young37215

[WIMorrison]

The colours are completely meaningless, especially as there is no such this as positive or negative on a DCC circuit.

 

Just connect them across the bus - anywhere

[melvin]

For what ta worth. I have used a pair of these for awhile now.

All I can say it cured the runaways I was getting.

[PaulRhB]

On 12/06/2019 at 08:13, WIMorrison said:

I think the theory is that it prevent spikes that are allegedly caused on the DCC bus when a short circuit occurs damaging stuff, not that this will prevent short circuits

They prevent the big spike in power that many systems cause as they come back on, not from the actual short itself, according to DCCconcepts most helpful uk chap 😉

That spike can be enough to reset / upset decoders or damage them. I had the issue and was supplied with the terminator when they repaired two cobalts that failed from the spike due to an actual faulty board and it stopped the loss of address on the other motors too so it works 🙂

Edited August 25, 2022 by PaulRhB