Digitising my points

[darkscot]

Due to a combination of redundancy, new job, ill health, partners ill health, poverty(?) I have done very little on my layout for nearly a year. However, a trip last month to the Festival of Railway Modelling got me motivated to get going again. Recently I have been mainly ballasting, thanks to a three bags of ballast bought at Doncaster.

However, this weekend I finally got around to wiring up my Lenz points controllers. I thought for a long time about how I was going to control my points, and had pretty much settled on the 'electric pencil' method when I spotted the LS150s on eBay last year. So as the multiMAUS has point control built in and is very easy to programme I went for them. The Lenz TR150 16V PSU costs an eye watering £60+, but thankfully Gaugemaster offer a suitable alternative for about a tenner. Plus it comes with a nice little PCB that gives 16V AC and 12V DC outputs.

[Brian]

Hi
The Lenz TR150 offers 15 volts AC at 70va (Approx 4.6 Amps). The Lenz LS150 manual specifies an AC input should not exceed 45va and where a transformer is rated above 45va a series resistor must be used. Very odd that Lenz dont produce a lower va rated transformer for use with their LS150?

The Gaugemaster WM1 (£25 from GM) has a maximum rating output of 16va at 16volts AC (Approx. 1.0Amp).

As the LS150 has no internal CDU, hence its output to the solenoid coils is AC, I would be a little cautious if you plan to throw two or more solenoid motors together. i.e. A cross over pair of points or a double slips two motors or a three way point all moving together. The little GM WM1 might trip out and disconnect the supply for a while with such a direct load?
Average momentary/instantaneous loading for a Peco PL10 or Seep PMx solenoid motor is around 3.5 to 4.0Amps (approx. 56 to 64va at 16volts)

Enjoy the digital operation.

[darkscot]

Thanks Brian. There are two pairs of points on my layout that in some circumstances it might be desirable to operate together, but it is no hardship to operate them separately. Also the multiMAUS can only address one point at a time, so it is irrelevant anyway.

I have set the LS150 output pulse duration to 0.1 seconds, so that keep any stress on the PSU and the solenoids to a minimum.

It is the TR100 that Lenz recommend for the LS150. This is 15V AC at 45VA. There are quite a few on eBay at the moment for about £30. I was tempted to get one, but so far WM1 seems to be more than adequate.