The Behemoth of a controller

[MR SPOCK]

Has anyone got or used one of these ,I got it in an auction as no-one else bid on it, I can power it up with a safety transformer to give me my 110 input, I took the lid off (as you do) despite the warnings to life and limb, it looks like its designed as a variac system, presume it will run Marklin gear, and basic open frame motors (universals) on AC only, instruction book came with it but not a lot of info, it weighs about 24lbs, if I added some rectifiers would I be able to use it for track power at 18 voltsDC?​

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[dutchelm]

I don't see any reason why you cannot run DC motors if you rectify the output. Locos with decoders & sound systems might not like the waveform & some smoothing may be needed. I would suggest you add overload cutouts unless they are inside already.

 

[MR SPOCK]

Thanks for that, I only want a constant voltage on the track to charge the onboard batteries in my loco's, and I dont use dcc , the loco's have their own charger units fitted internally so extra smoothing should take place,

I don't see any reason why you cannot run DC motors if you rectify the output. Locos with decoders & sound systems might not like the waveform & some smoothing may be needed. I would suggest you add overload cutouts unless they are inside already.

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[Neil Robinson]

My main supply is a rectified and smoothed output from a variac, it will definitely work.
The 24V RMS ac output will have a peak value of around 34 to 35V, so a smoothed rectified output may approach this on no load. I therefore suggest at least 40V minimum voltage rating for the rectifier and smoothing capacitors.
The sound buttons will probably give half wave output when pushed, some old style US ac locos use this to trigger whistle or horn. I doubt they will have any practical use on a DC system.