2014/02/27

2014_02_27 Talking Tsunami

2014_02_27 Thursday

I asked the makers of Powerpax a few questions and the second half of their answer was illuminating.
I bought the PowerPax because it was supposed to help load Tsunami's. This is obviously incorrect.
The bit about NMRA standards is indeed interesting and the suggestion is that the Tsunami is also not up to these standarrds?

Rod:
The reason for the warning is that many people end up connecting the program track to the main. This WILL damage the Power Pax. Using it on an isolated piece of track is fine. The Power Pax cannot be used to drive the locomotive. It meets the NMRA standard for program track which requires that it not output more than 250mA. Any current in excess of this will trip the Power Pax off requiring a reset. This is to protect your decoder from damage in the event that there is a mis-wire. If you are using the PR3 or the Sprog2, you do not need the Power Pax. These units DO NOT meet NMRA program track standards, so they have enough output power by themselves. The Power Pax is designed to provide a boost to the normal program track output without violating the 250mA requirement. Frankly, for Soundtraxx decoders, you probably want to use the Sprog2. The reason is that the program track on Digitrax is only on for a short time. This on time is not long enough to get the decoder up and running, and as a result, it is very difficult to correctly program Soundtraxx decoders with Digitrax equipment.

Larry Maier
Tech Support
Tony's Train Exchange