New DCC Concepts Circuit Breakers.

[centenary]

Might have been announced at Warley but just received a mailshot about their new Circuit Breaker module. Looks a good piece of kit. Seems a little pricey to me as most of their stuff is but, it's the world we now live in, I suppose.

https://www.dccconcepts.com/product-cat ... eb01a03a24

[RFS]

Pricey indeed - more than double that of what I would call the market leader, namely the DCC Specialities PSXX range.

[Richard08]

Built in in my Lenz controller. Do people supply controllers without overload/short protection? Probably controversial, but it looks to me like inventing a problem to sell a 'solution'.

[centenary]

Built in in my Lenz controller. Do people supply controllers without overload/short protection? Probably controversial, but it looks to me like inventing a problem to sell a 'solution'.

Same as most DCC sets and DCC Concepts Alpha power supplies. Problem is, if you have a short on the layout and just rely on the main controller's circuit protection, the whole layout can trip and everything grinds to a halt.

If you have a number of CBs such as these, one for the up line and one for the down or even have power districts, only the CB in that line or district should trip while the rest of the layout still works and can run trains while you identify the root cause.

If you have a small layout 6 x 4 foot say, yes, you could rely on the controller. But a garage or loft layout, I think CBs are a good safety feature.

[Richard08]

Built in in my Lenz controller. Do people supply controllers without overload/short protection? Probably controversial, but it looks to me like inventing a problem to sell a 'solution'.

Same as most DCC sets and DCC Concepts Alpha power supplies. Problem is, if you have a short on the layout and just rely on the main controller's circuit protection, the whole layout can trip and everything grinds to a halt.

If you have a number of CBs such as these, one for the up line and one for the down or even have power districts, only the CB in that line or district should trip while the rest of the layout still works and can run trains while you identify the root cause.

If you have a small layout 6 x 4 foot say, yes, you could rely on the controller. But a garage or loft layout, I think CBs are a good safety feature.

Surely if you have multiple trains moving and something shorts the safest response it to stop everything since it could be, say, a derailment that obstructs a line in use by a different 'area'. That would very definitely be my choice. I was literally going to click 'order' for the bits and bobs to go battery R/C but realised none of the systems I was looking at (this was few years back) had a Big Red Button to prevent collisions, or indeed a quick method to prevent £860 worth of derailed engine ploughing ever onwards knocking expensive detail bits off.

[Bufferstop]

Even if you are happy to stop the lot, then what. If it's not something simple like a derailment or foreign object on the track, where do you start looking for the short circuit? On a DC layout of any size there will be section switches. Turn them all off, then back on one at a time until it trips. Now you know where to start looking. On a DCC layout of similar size in the same circumstances how do you narrow down the area to search. You could put in switches or removable links to break the layout down into searchable sections, circuit breakers achieve the same without having to go through the rigmarole of trying one section at a time to recreate the problem. The alternative could be get out the soldering iron and start pulling your wiring apart. Even worse if there's no wiring you could be having to pull track apart!

[Peterm]

What bufferstop has described is what I have on my DCC layout, I've wired in section via switches, each one feeding a part of the layout which are all isolated from each other. As he said: turn 'em all off, reset the system and turn 'em on one at a time, You then have a much smaller job on your hands. No need for any expensive kit to do this. My layout is 19' X 9' and has never needed a booster or circuit breaker module. Save yourself some money.

[gppsoftware]

Even if you are happy to stop the lot, then what. If it's not something simple like a derailment or foreign object on the track, where do you start looking for the short circuit? On a DC layout of any size there will be section switches. Turn them all off, then back on one at a time until it trips. Now you know where to start looking. On a DCC layout of similar size in the same circumstances how do you narrow down the area to search. You could put in switches or removable links to break the layout down into searchable sections, circuit breakers achieve the same without having to go through the rigmarole of trying one section at a time to recreate the problem. The alternative could be get out the soldering iron and start pulling your wiring apart. Even worse if there's no wiring you could be having to pull track apart!

I have to say that I find it truly strange why so many people have constant shorts on their layouts. What do they do to cause this ?

On my (8M x 4M) 'Ashprington Road' layout, I simply implemented proper practice for all of the wiring and I've never had a problem on the layout in 25 years! That said, I do have proper computer-controlled interlocking and signal overlaps are electrically isolated when a signal is at danger so this largely prevents anything going into the back end of a live frog turnout which is switched the wrong way - the only thing that could cause a short on my layout.

I am also happy with the idea of a whole layout shutting down. If something has failed, the last thing I want is a train coming the other way on the other track ploughing into it.

[RFS]

I have to say that I find it truly strange why so many people have constant shorts on their layouts. What do they do to cause this ?

Most usually happens if you have live-frog points and forget to switch them correctly ...

[End2end]

I have to say that I find it truly strange why so many people have constant shorts on their layouts. What do they do to cause this ?

I had a constant short circuit on my layout. Turned out to be a faulty point and nothing at all to do with my wiring.
Thanks
End2end

[Richard08]

I have to say that I find it truly strange why so many people have constant shorts on their layouts. What do they do to cause this ?

Very often it's wheel backs touching open point blades. When I DCC'd one set of points (electrofrog) for no apparent reason (compared to the others) did this and to cure it (it was laid, ballasted and painted under the DC regime) I had to drill through the vee moulding to destroy the (Peco installed) wires connecting the blades together under the vee front (O gauge). Obviously post DCC points were prepared before laying and work just fine.