3rail what are the 6 Amp board slaving proccedures

[suzukovich]

My current solution, I have removed the pick up rollers from the b unit and ran a wire from the A units hot leds to the B units board leaving in place the grounds from the B unit which has the effect of syncs of both units when power is applied.  I figure there has to be an simpler way

I know from a previous thread that 3r had stated that the ability to slave a second unit was part of the initial design. So here are my questions.

1. Could you please elaborate on this design process.
2. The two 2 pin mounts on the E Board. both provide a constant power supply. One is used for the True Blast II and the True Blast plus. That leaves the second on not used.
 A. Can you use this 2 pin to slave the second board?
 B. How would this work if it provides constant power?
3. On the board you have the two 4 pin mounts that the motors, hot, and ground are plugged into. I wired the motor in series by removing the secnd 4 pin connector and running both motors, hot, and ground of the other 4 pin connector. This leaves  4 pin not being used. The questions are:
A. Would the board support running just the wires from the second B unit's motor into that connector, eliminating the need for the second E unit and pick up rollers? This would in effect sync all the motors.

Thank you

[phillyreading]

It is possible that you can do that with one circuit board but will it take the current demand on a long term basis needs to be looked at or you may fry the circuit board. Short term like five minutes may not harm the circuit board but long term like two hours or more may harm the board. Do a current draw test first and see if you exceed the 6 amp rating or not.

If you want all your motors to go in the same direction on two or more engines you could always try installing a bridge rectifier in the first unit rated for 8 amps or better and then supply wires to the other engine. However you will lose direction control unless you add a double pole double throw switch to reverse the polarity, after the rectifier, to the motors.

Lee F.

[suzukovich]

Lee

With current set up pulling 15 cars (mostly Atlas). I am only drawing 2.6 at 8.8 on my z4000 with 2 powered units. I am not even close to 6 amps. My thinking this shouldn't be an issue. That's why I am hopping someone Williams-Bachman who is familiar with the design of the 6 Amp board  would chime in.

Doug 

[suzukovich]

This is not new and don't ask the service department. They start taking about warrantee issue and will not answer question or even give part numbers for the connectors

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,20591.0.html

This was the response from 3rail in another thread

It is a DC output that you can use for another dual motored unit if you want to have a tether connected to another unit.  I don't have the exact specs, but the entire board is rated for 6 amps.  We included this in the original design of the board when were considering making a dual locomotive set with 4 motors.  That project never materialized, but the socket stayed in the design.  We may have some of the connectors in our service department.  Tell them it is the same connector used for the sound board.

Regards,

3rail

[phillyreading]

Lee

With current set up pulling 15 cars (mostly Atlas). I am only drawing 2.6 at 8.8 on my z4000 with 2 powered units. I am not even close to 6 amps. My thinking this shouldn't be an issue. That's why I am hopping someone Williams-Bachmann who is familiar with the design of the 6 Amp board  would chime in.

Doug 

Do you mean to say that you are drawing 2.6 amps at 8.8 volts with the Z-4000?
If so the current draw should be within usable limits for the circuit board.

My info that I got with the MTH DCS for a Williams SD-45 is that it starts around 7.5 volts, the GP-9 starts around 5.5 volts. This was done with the track power feature.

Lee F.

[suzukovich]

Lee

Single unit starts at 5.5 and is crawling 2-5 Smph both units married 6.6 crawling, with 15 car 7.1 crawl but due to track not level I need 8.8. This is my 1st strictly conventional engine. All others are DCS and 1 TMCC without cruse control. I have also notice the FA1 also required a lot more power to pull Atlas cars. .  Current mods increased the ability to pull a heavy load at crawl speed.

Doug

[suzukovich]

Lee

Without waiting for a Bachman tech chiming in, I performed the mod last night. Instead of running the tether from the 2 pin connector on the board. The wires from the motors in the B unit are combined to the 4 pin connector (Blue to blue and yellow to yellow) that the other two motors are wired into.  Previous mod was to sync the Two boards. pulling about 20lbs of rolling stock required 8.8 minimum drawing at the most 2.6 Amps with lowest 2.1. New set up (Motors, no  Board in B unit) average draw Amp draw fluctuates from 1.9 to 2.5. This is without cleaning my track and is most likely the cause of the fluctuation in Amps. The actual write up will be posted on  OGR forum board in the next couple of days.  http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/topic/has-anybody-tethered-two-convetional-williams-engines?reply=39441157801189429#39441157801189429

Doug