I use a "Power Station" one of those units designed for jump starting full size cars. All I do is run a pair of wires from the crocodile clips to the track. The same as I would if the wires came from a transformer. You could do the same from a car battery. If you are going to be using electronic controllers just make sure that you get polarity the correct way round. No doubt I should really fit a fuse in line at some point just in case of a short circuit.

 

A battery is just another source of DC power - connect up the red / + and black / - terminals just like a power supply.
Croc clips are OK as long as they are large enough to fit properly, but bolt on battery terminals might be better.
A fuse would be wise - conventionally this would go in between the red / + battery terminal and the track. A car type fuse holder with standard plug in blade type fuses will do fine. What value fuse depends on how many cars you are running at once. It's wise to have a few spare fuses. As a starting point, for just a few cars maybe a 5 amp fuse would be OK, but with more cars maybe 10 would be needed. Usually safer to start a bit low and go up if necessary.

 

Just out of curiosity, If you were to take a large car battery lets say a 85amph and connect a ordenary batterycharger,
would that solve all problems with power surge, when running 6 mag NSR cars, because then I would do that instead of buying a huge
power supply....

Best Peter

 

QUOTE (Dave D Stevens @ 4 Aug 2014, 06:06) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I use a "Power Station" one of those units designed for jump starting full size cars. All I do is run a pair of wires from the crocodile clips to the track. The same as I would if the wires came from a transformer.

I have also used a power station car jump starter (with light and air pump, and even a DC->AC converter. Power goes directly into a spare C7030 PB-Pro SH or APB, and it works great. I would do the same with a car battery, because both are protected from overloads and shorts already.

 

on an ordinary anologue track it wouldn,t stop the power surging. you,d need 2 batteries wired independently to each lane to stop that. John

 

A fully charged car battery in good condition is 12.5 volts, which might not be quite enough to activate the lane changers on a digital layout. You should check into that. The charging voltage for a 12 volt battery is 13.8 volts. Back in the '60's a local 8 lane 1/24th track was run on a single car battery and that seemed OK at the time. The commercial tracks that I ran on a few years back were mostly powered with big fork lift batteries. For various reasons most of the tracks switched over to using power supplies. If you keep the battery hooked up to a charger while you are running your cars you will mostly see 13.8 volts, but the voltage could sag a bit under load if the charger is not large. Here in the US big regulated power supplies can cost less than the combined prices of a battery and charger.

 

Doesn't Digital require an AC supply?

Peter.

 

Hi
No it requires a dc supply and Scaley lane changers will work with volts as low as nine,but much better with ten as a minimum.

Connect straight up but use a in line fuse

 

QUOTE (Singer @ 4 Aug 2014, 13:54) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Just out of curiosity, If you were to take a large car battery lets say a 85amph and connect a ordinary batterycharger, would that solve all problems with power surge, when running 6 mag NSR cars, because then I would do that instead of buying a huge power supply....
It depends on the cause of the power surges.
Surges due to wiring can only be fixed by sorting out the wiring, power supplies won't solve that sort of problem.
A correctly connected battery in good condition will be almost as good as a good power supply, so good you are unlikely to notice the difference.

I've done plenty of racing on battery power. No surge problems were noticeable when racing 6 high powered cars with that sort battery power supply and properly wired tracks. 6 mag NSR cars take a pretty modest current compared with that so surge will be even less of an issue. However, we did have problems with poorly wired tracks and batteries in poor condition.

 

question is how long can a battery would last? More so for a Power station given that it comes with a smaller battery that the one fitted in a car.
The other question is why would do you that (except if you are planning to move your track in a remote place where there is not power outlet).
In this case, how about attaching the cables from a car battery installed in a car while the car engine is running? With a new APB would you put only one jack or would connect two jacks both attached to the same battery?

 

Thanks for the replies ....... it's would appear that it is a lot simpler that I thought .... excellent ...

 

With my Power Station just running a single lane rally portable rally style circuit at fates and charity events I seem to manage 4 or 5 hours OK. Have just opened up the Power Station and the internal sealed lead acid battery is rated at 12v 17Ahr so with most Scalextric motors drawing less then 1 am you should expect almost 17 hours running time with just a single car. Saying that my Power Station has got Made in China stamped all over it and when it comes to battery capacity the Chinese seem to just dream up a figure before sticking it onto a battery.

 

QUOTE (GRUNZ @ 4 Aug 2014, 21:48) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>question is how long can a battery would last?
Depends on the battery size and how much average current you are taking.
The example quoted in an earlier post was an 85 amp hour battery - or to put it another way nominally 8.5 amps for 10 hours or 17 amps for 5 hours. It's likely you'd average well under 8.5 amps for a small digital track, although the maximum current draw may well be above that.
I've run 4 lane tracks at school fetes etc. all afternoon on a battery half that size with no problems.

 

Hello Greg,

The thickness of the cable and arrangement of the wiring is very important. Lots of good advice here :- Linky to BSCRA page
Includes running on a car battery and charger.

Leo

 

Thanks for the info!

In my case, I just wondered if it would solve a problem with insoficient power...

But on the other hand, I am prob. Going to go magless....

But if I need the ekstra power, I now know it is a way to go!

Best Peter

 

A car battery can deliver up to 800 cranking amps !!!

It will not even notice the miniscule amount of draw of your track cars and lane changers.
And a smallish car battery should last easily for a driving session, but since you need to hook it up to charge anyway, leave it on trickle, and get 13.8 volts

HOWEVER, you are risking damage to physical hardware. - If you've ever seen a car battery short circuited in car, you'd knbow what I mean - instant TIG welder.....

So protect your hardware with say a 20 amp fast blow 12V fuse, or something similar.
You can also buy self-resetting circuit breakers as are built into Slot.it slot controllers, Professor Motor's track wiring assemblies.
These will at least prevent any nasty accidents if you have a braid short on cars or a body screw falls across the rails.

 

A 20 amp fuse will mostly just protect the battery, it would be a lot better to also have a smaller value fuse or breaker for each lane, perhaps two or three amps. You probably would be able to get through an evening of racing without the voltage dropping off, at least if you used a car battery. If you use a regular lead acid battery be sure to put it in a plastic tray, I have seen them drool over and burn a hole in a carpet.

 

Very sage advice Rich.
I agree use a 2 or 3 amp fuse to protect your equipmemt.
And be careful of the battery if it fumes or overheats .
Good luck Greg let us know how it works out with todays modern devices.
It wasn't quite so much an issue in the early years when we didnt have all the new items.
Bob

 

I agree a 20 amp fuse is too high.
If you start at 2 or 3 amp fuses it would be wise to have some spares including somewhat higher current ones in case that proves too low.
If running anything near a full complement of digital cars at once, there's a good chance the low value fuses will keep popping.

 

I would recommend if the battery is not going to be on tickle charge most of the time to get a battery designed for caravan use as thes are designed to be discharged and recharged on a regular battery which standard car batteries aren't

 

I forgot that this was going to be a digital track. In that case you would need to have a single fuse or breaker. I would start with 5 amps and be prepared to go to a higher value if the 5 amp fuse wants to blow out with normal use. Probably the control unit will have its own protection.

 

Just to clarify: are you planning to use the battery for "regulating" the current to avoid power surges? If this is the case, does the PB need to be power upgraded?

thanks

 

Hi GRUNZ'
A battery is almost certainly capable of supplying way more current than even upgraded PBs can take.
In normal use that doesn't matter, but damage could occur if there is a fault.
A fuse or circuit breaker will protect against damage if there is a fault. (see earlier posts for recommended fuse values)

A battery will greatly reduce power surges compared with a basic power supply. It'll do that anyway whatever you plan for it to do.

 

Hi 300SLR
So correct if I am wrong: a battery can be used instead of a Regulated Power Supply to have enough current to avoid power surges.
Now the 5amp fuse is in the case of a standard APB (I have the 6car PB) or one with the power upgrade? Also, given that there are to sockets for power, in the case of a standard PB would you connect the battery in one of the socket and use the other with the supplied power supply?

Would be really useful if someone had some pics or an electric schema of the whole set up.

thanks

 

Replacing an unsatisfactory power supply with an adequate Regulated Power Supply or with a battery will improve the situation.
A properly Regulated Power Supply with a high enough current rating will not give power surges. Power supplies that do all that are readily available.
A Regulated Power Supply with inadequate current rating, a poorly regulated or unregulated power supply are likely to give power surges.

Power surges can also be caused by wiring issues, whatever you do with power supplies or batteries won't fix that problem.

I'll leave it to somebody with more experience of those particular types of power base to comment on the fuse ratings.