Power Supply for point motors and lighting

[disco-dave]

What can I use for a power supply to supply power to a circuit that controls lighting and point motors?

 

Do I need separate supplies for each circuit of differing voltages or can I use 1 for both, and what voltage is best? Also where can I get a power supply from? I have had a look at Maplins, but I don't know which one is suitable, it's a ll a bit foreign to me at the mo. I have an old Hornby controller, with an accessory output, the one that you get with box sets such as Eurostar etc. Will this do the job, is good enough, reliable etc.

 

Any help and advice about electronic power supplies appreciated.

[rushdenx1]

My point motors are powered using the 16v output on my Hornby Controller a work fine. With lighting it all depends on the type and the number of lights. I have around 30 street and building lights, all of which are either 6v or 12v. I have some paired up depending on how bright I want the lights. I bought an Eterna Low voltage 12v transformer (105VA I think), which is available from B&Q for about ??10. It can handle a large amount of lights and I have had no issues with it. Hope this helps. Kevin.

[Jinty Jon]

I tend to use an old power adaptor that I have lettle use for now but has a fairly high voltage e.g. old laptop charger, something like that. It's fairly easy to solder the wires together when you cut off one of the ends of the adaptor. Anything abouve 16v should do the trick for alot of lights. I'd run point motors off another power feed if I were you. They tend to need alot of power (usually 16 to 24v) to move. If you're going to use the two items on the same power feed then you will need a Capacitor discharge Unit (CDU). These store the power and them give a large bust of power when needed e.g. to move a point.

[BR60103]

Unless you have many operators, you probably will not be changing many points at the same time, so the point motor supply can be fairly low amps, (Exception: if you have a fiddle yard with single button route selection doing simultaneous changes of many points).

Lighting will have a cumulative demand on the amps and you may end up neding multiple supplies. The voltage should be less than the rating of the bulbs to promote long life, down to half the volts if the bulbs are still bright enough. Mixing voltage requirements from a single transformer is probably a bad idea unless it has several taps.

[Il Grifone]

Power supplies for traction, point solenoids/motors and lighting should be on separate transformers to avoid interaction. Supply bulbs on about 2/3 of their rating to avoid overheating (experiment for brightness and maybe use LEDs instead - more reliable and use less current).