Attaching to buss line

Whatever works for you is good. Just place a lighted car on the track when you take a reading at a given point.

I use FasTrack, which has better connectors and I went every 3' - 4'. No power issues at all and smoooooth running.

Just drag one of these around with an engine, the engine provides the load to give a more realistic reading.

I have have one of these, gotta make one!  I am guessing that you made this and if so, where did you get the digital AC meter and what range is it? I have found some but I think the ranges are too high, seems like all I can find are 0-300v or so and up. I was thinking more like 0-30vac? Found analog in lower ranges, but not digital. This would make a great project. Meters would come in handy for other applications too.

I bought the meters on eBay, they're 0-30V AC meters.  I had to do a little trickery to power them, they require a totally isolated DC supply.  I found a little DC-DC converter that is transformer isolated and used that to power the meters.  There's one on each side.

I'm pretty sure I posted a thread on making this thing here once.

Thanks gunrunnerjohn,

I will search ebay some more and also look for that thread. It's been a while since I last looked for the digital meters. At least now I know that are available in the 0-30vac range anyway.

If you drop a fed from each piece of rail to the buss, then no readings will be nedded. 

Dropping a feed to each rail is a common 2 rail practice.  Your mileage may vary.

They are 20VAC Meters: C:US:3160" target="_blank">http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-1-2-...me=ADME:LC:US:3160

If it works for you it's good for me! Now how many to order... Thanks John!

One more question, I found these DC 0-30V 10A Voltmeter Ammeter while looking around a while ago and was wondering if you could use these for track power and amperage from your power bricks? Possibly using a bridge rectifier sort of in reverse to convert to DC for the meter?

I really don't like the idea the more I think about it though. I think I would rather have direct AC, but the all in one meter doing both amps and volts looked appealing for a minute.

Well, for obvious reasons, you couldn't have the ammeters running around in the car.

Sorry gunrunnerjohn, I didn't word that very well. The dual meters would be for use in a control panel, to monitor the power feeds to the tracks from my power bricks. 

I was just curious if the dual meter being DC could be adapted for AC use and was only thinking about the voltage, never considered the amperage part. I have no idea if that could even be adapted. And if either could be adapted, would the readings even be accurate?

Those dual meters would really be neat for our train usage, someone needs to make one of these for AC! However, yesterday I also ordered 6 each of 0-30vac and 0-15amp analog meters from ebay, they were so cheap I couldn't resist...just hope I don't regret the purchase after it arrives. Total order was only around $48, with free shipping.

Yesterday, I ordered 2 of the ones you posted for the voltage car project. That one is a 'must have' for me, gotta build one!

I'd use AC meters, I initially tried to use DC meters for my car, but I couldn't get accurate results.

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of, and didn't order any. Got all analog AC stuff (except for the car meters). Now, about the time I get it all hooked up they will have the dual meters for low volt/amp AC available. 

I use a 9 volt battery for meter power. Simple and lasts a long time. Most of these meters are not true rms, but good for comparison around the layout, etc.

For isolated power, a cheap wall-wart would do fine and eliminate any battery issues.