MONK posted:Is there a problem with the voltages being lower than 18 volts, 12-14 volts? I'am running some 12 volt lamps on the track power. It seams to work fine, but I thought I would check it out with some of you. I'am running the Coors Light train.
Could someone give me some help on this?
If all's well at 12V then you're OK. 12V is plenty of voltage to drive the smoke units. The Protosound smoke units including those in the Coors reefers simply draw more current at lower track voltages to maintain a constant-smoke volume. That is, if you drop the voltage from 18V to 12V, the current going to the smoke unit will essentially increase by about 50% to compensate for the lower voltage. Note that smoke current is a fraction of the overall engine current so you might not even see a 50% change on a Z4000 current readout if you happen to be using that. This is similar to how constant-brightness lighting works in PS - you don't need the "full" 16-18V to run the lights...they will stay constant-brightness as 12V too by drawing a bit more current but again you might not even notice the increase on a meter.
You generally run into a top speed limitation when operating at 12V (rather than 16-18V). Obviously dependent on load, climbing grades, going around curves, etc. but I'd guess that on a typical Coors consist you might only reach ~50 sMPH if "only" 12V on the track. In other words, command 100 sMPH and you'll top out at something less. But the constant-lighting and smoke operation will be the same as that with the "full" 16-18V on the track.
