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Crossing Power Zones

Dave All Messages By This Member #4565 My layout is divided into two power zones with double track breaks between each zone. I have a z21 Black and two Dr5033 DigiBoost units connected to the Z21 via their sniffer inputs. All appears to work correctly except: ? If I run a lighted coach (Pullman) across the zone boundaries the lights go out whilst one bogie is in each zone. Placing a track tester across the zone boundary on opposite lines lights the tester very dimly.? Digiboost is set ?to not auto reverse polarity and polarity is the same in both zones. Train behaviour is normal.? Can someone confirm if this is normal please? ? Thankyou ? -- Dave, Portland Church Hope Model Railway /?
Iain Morrison All Messages By This Member #4566 开云体育 Dave, ? Why are you using the sniffer instead of the B-Bus, especially as the B-Bus is for use with Roco? ? You should not need the auto-reverse if you are certain the polarities are the same, but by the same token if they are the same then having it switched on will do nothing. Personally I would leave it on to avoid the potential for a phase reversal. ? IIRC the voltages at the boundary need to be within ?v of each other and I suggest that you check the loaded voltage on both sides of the boundary. Loaded means something drawing current on each side, a voltage without a load can be very misleading. You will be able to adjust the Z21 voltage easily, the DR5033 needs a change of power supply to change the voltage. Remember that if you change the track voltages you may need to remeasure the iTrain speed profiles. ? Iain ? toggle quoted message Show quoted text From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dave via groups.io Sent: 04 October 2024 13:31 To: [email protected] Subject: Crossing Power Zones ? My layout is divided into two power zones with double track breaks between each zone. I have a z21 Black and two Dr5033 DigiBoost units connected to the Z21 via their sniffer inputs. All appears to work correctly except: ? If I run a lighted coach (Pullman) across the zone boundaries the lights go out whilst one bogie is in each zone. Placing a track tester across the zone boundary on opposite lines lights the tester very dimly.? Digiboost is set ?to not auto reverse polarity and polarity is the same in both zones. Train behaviour is normal.? Can someone confirm if this is normal please? ? Thankyou ? -- Dave, Portland Church Hope Model Railway /?
Mike All Messages By This Member #4567 If your power zones are feed from separately powered boosters and there is no common between them then this is expected behaviour if the coaches are fed by one rail only on each bogie. Same happens to steam locos fed one side from the loco and the other from the tender. ? Either fit pickups to both sides of the bogies or if the boosters can have it, common one rail between them. ? Mike
karst.drenth All Messages By This Member #4569 On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 06:22 AM, Mike wrote: if the boosters can have it, common one rail between them Neither Z21 nor DR5033 allows for Common Ground !!? Both use HBridges. Greetz, Karst
Mike All Messages By This Member #4570 Dave looks like you are left with extra pickups or adding storage capacitors to supply power while crossing the blocks. ? It always seems odd that some boosters can't handle this as they will get connected this way for short periods as stock crosses block boundaries. I presume these boosters do not have isolated control inputs, as otherwise if fed by separate isolated power supplies there would be no electrical circuit between them. ? Mike
Stuart Baker All Messages By This Member #4571 On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 08:40 AM, karst.drenth wrote: Neither Z21 nor DR5033 allows for Common Ground !!? Both use HBridges. Karst, ? Can you elaborate on this statement? All of the "classic" boosters I'm familiar with in North America use "H-Bridges", including the ones that I've helped design (CS-105, B-106, and LT-50), as well as popular boosters from CVP Products, Digitrax, some Lenz, and NCE. All of these boosters have the ability to connect up a booster "common", which is not "ground". They all have provisions to connect the "return" side of their internal power supplies to a booster "common". ? In the situation where the booster does not expose the "return" side of its internal power supplies to a terminal, you can still create a booster "common" by tying one phase of the track output from each booster together, similar to classic "common rail" wiring. Lenz even recommended this in their product literature, at least at one time. ? More information about booster commons can be found here: ? I'm struggling to understand what about having an "H-Bridge" you think prevents the ability to support a booster common. ...or have I misinterpreted your statements? ? Thanks, Stuart
Dave All Messages By This Member #4573 Thankyou all for comments over the weekend. I will look at the coach pick ups when I get home this evening; I didn’t realise that they may only pick up from one track at each end.? Also will check the loaded voltages across the boundaries; really hoping not to have to adjust voltage as time to speed test all locos is really limited before next show.? Thanks All ? -- Dave, Portland Church Hope Model Railway /?

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