Gents,
In anticipation of the long awaited return to racing at The Ring there will be one significant upgrade to the track which in a perfect world should go unnoticed by everyone who races – a modern three power supply solution – replacing the older linear single supply – for my three lane track.
In recent years I’ve seen two original Trackmate Power Supplies go flaky as they age out of warranty. With large capacity linear supplies becoming impossible to find at a reasonable price point it was time to bite the bullet and adopt a solution using the newer switchable technology to power our tracks. Since many reasonably priced supplies are only 10A one is not enough to power a three or four lane track.
Last spring while searching for a power supply for Nova Ridge I would have used four smaller switchable supplies had I not discovered a robust old school linear Pyramid 30A adjustable supply. That PS is working exceptionally well at Nova Ridge. Unfortunately it is no longer produced and as some say, unobtainium.
Initially skeptical of these non-CSA compliant 10A switchable supplies manufactured in China I was pleasantly surprised by a fellow racers experience with one on his 2 lane DArt slot car track.
So the Amazon order was made.
I already purchased four separate relays which I was going to use last spring so now I had everything I needed – three power supplies, three relays, 16 gauge wiring and banana plugs.
I removed the original single relay Trackmate power card and replaced it with three individual relays each connected to the 85 and 86 outputs of the red Trackmate mother card.
Each relay was spliced into the positive feed between the power supply and the driver station. The negative feed bypassed each relay.
Since each lane now has independent power there should be no more power interruptions or changes (surges or drops) for cars leaving the track, riders, or incorrect controller hookups. In other words the power for each lane should be completely isolated from the others… that is the theory at least – but there is only one way to test this – a race!!!
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