# snubbers



## hutchhutchinson (Dec 2, 2010)

G'Day Guys,
I have a stub end staging yard on two levels, the top with four tracks, the bottom with six tracks.
I was wondering can I put the snubbers at the throat or do I have to put them at the end of each track ? If you are wondering what they are for its to stop electronic ringing that can damage your decoders with too much voltage on long track runs of over 30 feet in length,well that I am led to believe.
Cheers,
Hutch.Down Under DCC


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## bakkers2005 (Nov 12, 2010)

hi hutch,never heard of snubbers. what dcc system do you use? i run trains well in excess of 30ft and dont have a voltage problem. and what is electronic ringing? regards bob


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## hutchhutchinson (Dec 2, 2010)

*snubbers & dcc system*

G'Day Bob,Guys
From what I understand snubbers stop the electronic ringing,the voltage that can increase the longer the wires are from the command station, the voltage can go as much as double as from say, 14volts to 26volts !! this will blow up your decoders.You can only test for this with a oscilloscope.
You will find a better explanation in Alan Gartner's wiringfordcc.com.
I use a Lenz LVZ100 set with LH90 hand controllers.our club the South Australia N Gauge Society www.sangs.asn.au/sangs/ uses the same and our layout has approx 200 feet of code 80 N scale track.its a loop to loop and point to a ten track staging yard. Its is very early days with DCC so its mainly run DC and can be changed from DC to DCC by unplugging the DC throttles and just plugging in the DCC system.
Cheers,:
Hutch.


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## bakkers2005 (Nov 12, 2010)

hi again hutch, well i asked a few very dcc knowledgable guys at the club about these snubbers and the track voltage problem you seem to have on long stretches of line. now one of these fellows is an electrical engineer and he said that to have voltage problems of 26 volts means that your power supply is wrong or faulty. also most dcc products stress that a max of 16 or 17 volts transformer power supply be used and no more.and that your power wires be installed at 1200mm intervals along the track and that in exteme long runs a booster unit be installed. but here at the club we have runs at 100ft or more and run on the nce 5 amp system with no problems at all and no boosters. he actually new what snubbers were and what their role in the track wiring circuit was. but he stressed that you have a power supply problem and should check that out first if your track is affecting your decoders. hope this helps. regards bob


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## hutchhutchinson (Dec 2, 2010)

Hi Bob,
Well,
My two Transformers are 15volts AC @ 10 amps and 15 volts [email protected] amps , at the moment I am using them to power the two power districts
on our club layout { on loan } as the clubs two transformers are too powerful for DCC N scale 18 volts DC @ 8 amps.
Each one powers 6 dc throttles and each throttle controls one block so you can see that the wiring had a built in problem of short runs and progressively longer runs, but mostly under size wire that we are doubling up when we find voltage drop.
So far we think this has now been fixed, we may have to install two more boosters to share the load and to make sure the short detection works.
As you may gather I am the only DCC member in the club that has had DCC for approx 6 years and I still do not know as much as I would like about DCC so the other club members are relying on me.and Its is a battle to get the DC mind set changed,but I will keep on keeping on.
. Alan Gartners Wiring for DCC forum explains the problem in greater detail.than I can.
Cheers,
Hutch.


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## bakkers2005 (Nov 12, 2010)

hi hutch, isnt dcc an on going battle of knowledge. i'm lucky i have the local contacts that i have to help me when i get stuck. It must be a real challenge to introduce dcc into a club that has been dc since year dot. i have visited the UP modelrailroad club in brisbane and they were in turmoil as some wanted the change and some didn't. they were quite vocal when i was there. but i think they are making the changeover slowly. had a member of the melbourne model railway group pay a visit to my layout yesterday and he too was battlelling with dcc issues. he had a list. so i invited him to our next group meeting where he can bother our dcc 'gods'. as we have nicknamed them. kind regards bob


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

My father's club runs DCC (Lansing Model RR Club, LMRC.com) they basically run leaders into each individual section of track so that you don't have a case where power has to travel down a long section of track through the joiners. We wired my layout the same way in preparation for DCC (although I'm still only DC at this point) 

You can see the leaders going to the track every few feet off of the main power lead that runs under the track in this photo (if you zoom in.) I could take some better pics when I get home if you need.

Apparently they had problems keeping consistent power when they tried to have long runs with single feeders into a block.


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Snubbers go at the ends of the buss not the ends of the tracks.
Just a few notes 
You mentioned that you are "doubling up when we find voltage drop."
I would caution you on this because it can also cause "Ringing or Echo" in the dcc signal also.
As mentioned by sstlaure the Buss and drops are very important. I use 10 gage stranded as the buss and 22 gage drops every 3 to 6 feet. I have run this for years with no ill effects on a layout with 220 foot runs.
Keep up with the DCC it only gets easier with time.
Hope this helps
Sean


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## hutchhutchinson (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks Sean.
Yes I do understand about the droppers and about the doubling up of the wires we have twisted them to cut down hopefully on the ringing.if it persists we will put in more Boosters.
cheer,s 
Hutch.


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