Moving back on topic in a moment:
I am moving from a Digitrax system to the YaMoRC/Digikeijs world with a few DR5033's and a YD7001. I got them a few months ago when YaMoRC stock was briefly available from Iron Planet Hobbies and Digikeijs supply was dwindling fast.
I am also using YD6010LN-CSs for block detection since I use ESU decoders and want to go RailCom eventually and the upgrade path was clear.
The interesting part to all of this was the way I could make a power distribution board containing a DR5033 and a YD6016LN-CS in a really compact space to serve a portion of the layout. The wiring was massively simplified compared to Digitrax. Now as to powering them which is getting back on topic.....
In the Digitrax world I was using large power supplies instead of the smaller power plugpacks and Digitrax even told us where we could use common power supplies. Thus I had a power supply for all my DS64/74's and another one for all my BDL168's etc. I was not a massive fan of multiple plugpacks scatterered around the layout. So when it came time to design these new distribution/detection boards I considered using one of my Meanwell 15v 350w power supplies for all my boards. But then I became concerned that switch mode power supplies may not be as isolating as I would want, and so I designed each board to have a 15v power run back to a central point where I placed all my power supplies. After all it was only 2 wires per board back to the power supplies and the DR5033 and DR5000/YD7001 came with a power supply so why waste them? I just cut the power plug (with the supressor still attached) and put the plug on the board and just ran wires back to the power supplies. I didn't want AC mains power outlets around the layout.
I mention all this because when Jim Tatum said he was using a common power supply for all his DR5033's and YD7001 I became a little curious. I would like to know if it is recommended or not to use a common power supply for all modules and if Jim has automatic polarity reversal turned off? on the DR5033s as recommended. Of course there can be other reasons for short circuits and I am using 15v and not 18v power supplies. Having a power supply drop from 18v to 8v at switch-on is alarming and does indicate a permanent low resistance somewhere. Have you tried unplugging various DR5033s to see what happens?
Oldngrey