AC power supply

[pbarrien]

What is the advantage of AC power supply over CC power supply? is there any?

[rich1998]

what is a cc power supply?
lex

[mhampton]

I was stumped by the nomenclature, too, so I googled "cc power supply" and got this link:

http://www.ese.upenn.edu/rca/instruments/HPpower/PS3631A.html

Constant Current

[ebtnut]

Let's not get too hung up on electronic theory here.  AC, alternating current, is what comes out of your wall outlet, usually at 110-120v.  That stuff is way to dangerous to mess with directly for hobby purposes.  It has to be dropped down via a transformer.  This occurs inside your throttle pack.  Now, most three-rail "toy" trains (think Williams) use about 15 volts AC to power the trains.  Thus the transformer in the power pack turns the 110v into 15v, which is then fed through a variable voltage regulator to run the trains.  The "scale" folks almost univerally use DC (Direct Current) at 12-14 volts.  For this, the transformer in the power pack feeds the 15v AC into a rectifier, which converts the AC to DC.  Then it is fed to the voltage regulator to run the trains.