[Greg Elmassian]

It's definitely a benefit to use the second connector for extra lights, one shortcoming of the original Aristo socket.

What was the current consumption question about? The TSU-4400's ability?

Greg

 

[BodsRailRoad]

It's definitely a benefit to use the second connector for extra lights, one shortcoming of the original Aristo socket.

What was the current consumption question about? The TSU-4400's ability?

Greg

True, hopefully since their J2 socket is live now a new version PNP board will be able to control the lights and smoke unit with just plugging it in.

The lights are even more individually controllable but I had to double up some of the outputs because the TSU-4400 only had 4 available functions.

I asked about current draw because of the 4amp ceiling of the TSU board and wanted to make sure it would be able to handle the six axel truck as well as it does the 4 axel ones.

Hopefully the new PnP boards for these engines will have higher ceiling like the old QSIs, and the Zimos.

 

[BodsRailRoad]

On another bright note, I was able to mount the TSU directly on the PNP socket adapter board using a couple of pieces of dence foam to insulate the 2 boards from each other and a tye wrap and have it clear the top of the shell, so no need to run extra wires and remote mount the DCC board.

 

[BodsRailRoad]

I finished up the Dash-9 today, and broke it in.

I hooked up 6 USA Trains bi-level auto carriers, (total weight of cars was 46.5 lbs) and took them for a spin. The loco handled the load without any problems. The max current draw was about 3.6 amps at stall, and a consistent 2-2.5 amps with all lights, smoke, and sound turned on.

Here's a quick video of it in action.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

How did you measure "stall"?

wheels spinning, or pressed down to stop the wheels...

Greg

 

[BodsRailRoad]

How did you measure "stall"?

wheels spinning, or pressed down to stop the wheels...

Greg

By wheels spinning in place, I just kept adding weight until the loco could no longer move the consist, or stalled 😁 (was 9 Bi lvls and a bunch of USA streamliners). I didn't want to take the chance of breaking anything on the new engine by holding it down.

 

[Greg Elmassian]

Full wheelslip, I would not normally call this a stall... the train is stalled, but not the motor.

With those gearboxes, it's very hard to actually bear down to get a full stall condition on the motor, theoretically the max possible current draw (would be nice to design the electronics to handle this), but full wheelslip is normally your practical worst case condition.

I believe you have Aristo SS rail as I do. This is much slipperier than brass, so you should be able to achieve full wheel slip at a lower current.

Also, you did not have the full 6 pounds of weight, right? that's another variable.

Just trying to point out to all that the question "what is the max current draw of a Dash 9" needs a whole bunch of qualifiers, especially if you are measuring full wheel slip, not a full motor stall condition.

Greg