# Power Supply for DCC?



## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

Another question from one not knowing much about DCC.

What is needed to provide power to the track?

Does the DCC unit provide the power to the track or does it come from a separate source?

If from a separate source, will a standard DC power pack do the trick?
If so do you turn it to max throttle or somewhat lower?
I have a couple of MRC Railpower 1370s - 15v DC, 18VA. Would one of them work?


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

you need a DCC power pack to run DCC.

there are a couple of starter sets that would get you going.

read through the DCC section and see what you like/want/need/

the MRC's you have can be used for track turn outs/lights/


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## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

Unless the DCC command station says specifically that it is a power supply and command station in one unit, you will need a separate power supply. An 18VAC power supply would do well.
The command station only integrates the digitial signal onto the power needed to run the trains. The Decoder in the locomotive lifts the digital command off the power and responds to the commands.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

The DCC power supply does not go to the rails because it has to be converted from AC sine or DC to an AC square wave, and encoded with the DCC command signal.

The power required to supply to the DCC Command station will very from manufacture to manufacture.

Digitrax Zephyr Xtra has it's own included supply and so did some of the NCE units, while there other units need to have a supply added, it's any where from 20V RMS AC to 12V AC or 28V DC to 12V DC.
I use medical power supplies, the can be gotten off of EBay for about $20 and the are 24V DC and 10+ amps, just put a inline fuse that's at or below what your unit requires (5 amp or 8 amp).
The higher the voltage feed into the DCC command station the more stable the DCC signal will be coming out of the unit will be.


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## timlange3 (Jan 16, 2013)

An existing DC power pack may work. Best to use the accessory A/C terminals. Check your DCC command station first to see what input it desires, it will probably be a voltage range like 16-24V, A/C or D/C. I used an old MRC Golden Dual (from the sixties) to power my Digitrax Empire Builder DB150 at first. I used the 2A, 16VAC accessory output.


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