BPC / track power question

George,

Have you considered using an SC-2 programmed for Accessories? One SC-2 will handle six of these districts.

Ray

Rayin"S" posted:

George,

Have you considered using an SC-2 programmed for Accessories? One SC-2 will handle six of these districts.

Ray

Ray,

No, I had not.  I helped a friend set up SC-2's to fire AtlasO switch machines.  But I certainly will investigate that idea. 

Any details you can provide for this concept would be of help. 

Thank you!

George

think of a BPC as a device with 4 individual toggle switches connected to one transformer or you can connect 2 separate180w powerhouses to one BPC device but you can only power either aux1-1or aux2-2 powering all 4 track outputs at same time but not both powerhouse can run all 4 outputs at same time with the ability to turn each one off independently.

I took a look at lionels owners manual for sc-2 you can wire up to 12 accessories and will assume a track can be considered an accessory ?

the down side is only one power supply to each unit and at $129 ea maybe more than you care to pay as it would take 6 of them as you are using 6 individual 180w powerhouses.

now for districts 1&2 you can use first 2 outputs to aux1-1 and the last 2 outputs to aux1-2 that would take care of power districts 1&2.

then power districts 3&4 would be on a second BPC setup as 2 outputs to aux1-1 and aux1-2 

then the 3rd BPC would be setup as above for power districts 5 as aux1-1 then power districts 7&8 would be on last 2 outputs set as aux1-2.

not sure if it can be used this way you would have to try it on work bench to see if bpc's can be split in half track output wise with 2 individual powerhouses supplying power to 2 each track outputs.

this makes a total of 3 bpc's setup using 2 individual180w powerhouses.

hope this helps and makes sense to you ?

now for simplicity if more than one block of tracks in each district it would save for complexity if each 180w powerhouse and 6 bpc's are used so you now have 4 individual tracks per 180 powerhouse you can power or turn of individually thus allowing rest of track/s to still be powered.

if you setup as 6 bpc's if on any one loop/track your running conventional trains now you can turn power off to that one block section yet rest of blocks on that same bpc are still powered. this comes in handy if you have switches where one train can come from a inner loop to the outer loop.

it might help if you included a track diagram  so we can see what you are actually doing as of now sounds like all of district 1 is one loop or? of powered track.

G3750 posted:

All:

Background:

I am in the process of setting up the power districts for my PRR Panhandle 2.0.  It is a TMCC layout. 

There will be 8 power districts supplied by 6 Lionel Power House 180 watt bricks.  My revised thinking is:

• District 1:  Steubenville (part of the mainline); PH180 #1
• District 2:  River Route; PH180 #2 & TPC-400 (conventional & command)
• District 3:  Coal Mine spur;  PH180 #3
• District 4:  Weirton Junction Yard;  PH180 #3
• District 5:  PRR Bridge (part of the mainline);  PH180 #4
• District 6:  Weirton (part of the mainline);  PH180 #5
• District 7:  Weirton Steel Yard;  PH180 #6
• District 8:  Staging Area;  PH180 #6

The yards sharing a PowerHouse 180 lack enough activity to justify their own power supply.

I want to be able to turn off power independently in Districts 3, 4, 7, and 8.

 

Question(s):

I am thinking about using a Block Power Controller to shut off power to Districts 3, 4, 7, and 8.  Previously in PRR Panhandle 1.0 I did this for 4 yards using a single BPC and a single PowerHouse 180.  With districts needing more power, my questions are:

1. Can this still be done with just 1 Block Power Controller or do I need 1 for Districts 3 & 4 and 1 for Districts 7 & 8?  Remember that 1 PH180 powers districts 3 & 4 and that 1 PH180 powers District 7 and a 3rd powers District 8. you have 6 separate power supplies so districts 3&4 is one BPC, districts 7&8 is 2nd bpc districts 1&2 a 3rd bpc and district 5 would make the 4th bpc. I think the outputs can be split on bps as 2 outputs connected to each separate 180w powerhouse I'm not positive if you have the bpc and 2 powerhouses set them up and see if it can be done that way.
2. Can 1 BPC deal with 2 PH180's? yes the bpc has at left corner tr-1 and tr-2 this is where the separate hot wire connects to each bpc so if all 4 set as aux1-1 then tr-1 controls all 4 outputs. or possibly tr-1 aux1-1 the first 2 outputs connect to it and tr-2 set as aux1-2 the last 2 outputs to track use that 2nd 180w powerhouse supply you'll have to test this and see if it will work that way.
3. Each BPC has four addresses, so the first will address 1-4, the second will address 5-8 (District 7) and the third (District 8) will address 9-12, right?  you are correct each bpc is in multiples of 4 also when you go to setup each bpc individual id # all you need do is push accessory on remote then aux1 and then with a#1 or a #5 or A #9 for each successive bpc.

             I hope this answers your questions.

Thanks,

George

You can only wire six tracks to the SC2, but that's better than the BPC that will only control four.  The BPC was designed to allow you to switch one of two transformers to each block or turn the block off.  Since you probably don't need to allow for dual transformers for one block, the SC2 ends up being a better bet.

GUNRUNNERJOHN, why can you only wire 6 tracks to a SC-2? just curious is all

thanks

Some of the logic to a BPC was based on the TPC's (Track Power Controllers).  A TPC could be programmed either conventional operation or command.  Two TPC's, one programmed Conventional, and the other programmed command, could power (4 tracks), and you had the ability to do command and conventional on all the tracks controlled by you hand held remote (Cab1).  IMO.   I have two BPC (8 track circuits) and two TPC, but seldom run conventional.  Mike CT.

Second TPC, (Silver box), was removed and used with the modular group.

These earlier, IC Controls, BPC, are a bit lighter than current Lionel offerings. Dead short derails cause some burn-out problems with the BPC's. You can correct the burned trace problem, which I did, and fused all (8) track circuits @ 7.5 amps.  Note the fuse blocks.  Top center of picture.  Power lower left in picture is Parallel PH 135's

Eventually this foggy head needs a map, to figure what is switched to what. 

George,

GUNRUNNERJOHN has explained this better than I might have. If you are wanting to use two of the Powerhouses for the application you can wire one to each SC-2.

STPAUL, The reason for wiring only six tracks to the SC-2 is that one side of the control buttons is constant power which can be turned on and off, the other side will supply power only as long as you keep the button pressed.

Ray

STPAUL said,

the down side is only one power supply to each unit and at $129 ea maybe more than you care to pay as it would take 6 of them as you are using 6 individual 180w powerhouses.

I purchased all of my SC-2s on used EBAY, all under $60.00 and all are working fine.

Ray

Ray beat me to it.

All:

I believe I have worked out what I want to do.  I already have a BPC, two TPC300's and a TPC400.  Therefore, there is no need to buy an SC-2.

After a lot of thought, I have come up with the power distribution plan for layout. The board uses a Block Power Controller (BPC) and 2 Track Power Controllers (a TPC300 and a TPC400). The blocks are reworked as follows:

1 Steubenville (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
2 PRR Bridge (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
3 Weirton (mainline) powered by a Power House 180
4 Weirton Steel (yard) powered by a Power House 180
5 Coal Mine (yard) powered by a Power House 135 attached to a TPC300 and a Block Power Controller
6 Weirton Junction (yard) powered by the same PH135, TPC300, and BPC controls above.
7 River Route (branch line) powered by the same PH135, TPC300, and BPC controls above.
8 Staging Area (yard) powered by a Power House 180 connected to a TPC400 and the BPC above.

The components should give me the ability to:

• Shut power on/off selectively to each of the yards using the BPC.
• Run trains on the River Route in either Conventional or Command mode using the TPC300. Since that is just a loop, it's perfect for Christmas trains or train running by grandchildren without affecting the trains of bigger kids (like myself  ).

The power distribution panel itself will measure 30" H x 8' W. It will feature light bulbs (to indicate power), fuses, and labels for each of the 8 power districts. Transformers and Power Houses will sit on a TV cart that can be rolled away from the layout for maintenance work on the board. AC accessories and switch buses will be supplied by K-Line PowerChief 120F transformers. DC accessories and lights will be supplied by a 3VDC wall wart (traffic lights, telephone pole lights), 5VDC power supply (TBD), and a 12VDC power supply (animations and lights).

I am pretty happy with this panel design.  It is much less cluttered than the one for Panhandle 1.0.

I would welcome your comments. 

George

Slight correction made to the above post - highlighted in red.

George