DIY Adjustable Power

[chappyman66]

[Z-carfan]

That’s Ian outstanding! Great tutorial.

[frank9129]

Thank you,
Very nice work. Since I am OLD I would ask for part numbers.
Will this handle a four lane track? I can see a great benefit when I have 6-10 year olds racing.

[frank9129]

Thank you,
Very nice work. Since I am OLD I would ask for part numbers.
Will this handle a four lane track? I can see a great benefit when I have 6-10 year olds racing.
Poo. I missed the part where this is at the drivers station. I'll need four for my existing track.

[chappyman66]

[frank9129]

Amazon takes me back to my orders. I tried to cheat, but it doesn't work.

[chappyman66]

Ok, let's try this:

eboot 6 pack LM2596 DC to DC buck converters, $11.59

0-30V 0.36" digital voltmeter (two wires)

Hopefully that helps?

There are many buck converters, I just used these because they are cheap and I don't run cars that pull high (3+) Amps.

And yes...my 7 year old grandson was turned down to 8 volts tonight and enjoyed racing tonight.

[HomeRacingWorld]

Real easy, just use that in your search from the main.



Thanks, this is a very good tutorial/info.

[chappyman66]

One per lane allows the lanes to be balanced when they aren't equal length, as well as customization per driver. And a single power supply for the track (helpful if you use a battery).

[HomeRacingWorld]

Well, you can get a good adjustable supply for less than $55 shipped. Just picked up a new 10 amp unit which is fine for 4 lanes using our regular motors. (Scaley, Carrera, Slot.it) on wood.

If you add these to it to have the “fine tuning” per lane as you mentioned, your still only around $75 invested.

Which is pretty inexpensive really. When you end up with this level of adjustability.

Going to save this one. It’s a keeper. Again thanks for the effort and sharing it.

[mattb]

Nice job paul

[tjettom]

What are the out put adjustment deviation limits from a given applied input voltage?
Thanks,
Tom

[chappyman66]

The step down voltage is about 0.5V. My 13.6V transformer measures 13 V. Although it's claimed to drop 1.5V, I don't see that much.

[tjettom]

No, I was asking "what are the out put ADJUSTMENT deviation limits from a given applied input voltage? " I am interested in the adjustable limits from an applied voltage. Example...If the applied voltage is say 12 volts, will the adjustable deviation ADJUST as low as ? 0 ? ...or how much will it deviate from the input with adjustment?
Thanks,
Tom

[chappyman66]

With 13V input, I have only turned it down as low as 5.5V.
I can try turning it down farther, but at 6V he can almost keep an NC-1 at full throttle so I haven't gone any lower. The readout is 3 digits so at 10V and above it reads one decimal; below 10V it shows two decimals.
I normally run at 10V, and it doesn't vary more than 0.2V when running. We have that much variation on separate power supplies at a different track. So it doesn't drop off much and I can turn it way down for the kids, which was my goal.

Hopefully this answers the question?