This
DCC Booster was designed to solve two issues that putting a lot of DCC
accessory decoders on your layout brings up. 1) They are a drain on
your precious loco amps and 2) When a loco causes a short all the
accessories lose power. To solve this problem we have made a DCC
booster that can be used for accessories on any brand of DCC system. It can provide about 5 Amps of power to run the DCC accessories independent of the track power from your command station. During a short on the layout, when the DCC signal dies, the booster
continues to deliver full power. This is a so-called "dumb" booster in
that it does not need a cab bus - it connects directly to the track output of your existing command station.
You can also use the booster as a "powered circuit breaker". It fills all the functions of a circuit breaker but provides its own power. Each of your power districts puts no load on the command station as it is fully buffered. I use several of these with 16 V power supply which gives about 14.5 Volts on the track to power my own layout with just a single NCE PowerCab.
Auto- shutdown - the unit
shuts down after 5 minutes of no DCC signal (accessory mode) or immediately (power district mode). When the DCC signal
returns it wakes up immediately. Just plug the booster in and forget about it.
The booster has protection against shorts and overheating. The input is optically isolated.
Efficient
- this booster uses the latest in efficient power electronics and as
such it does not get hot in normal operation - the power supply is a
highly efficient switching power supply that also stays nice and cool. A heatsink is provided although in normal use it never becomes warm unless the track is continuously shorted.
The terminal block can be removed for ease of putting in the wires.
DCC Booster board without the power supply. These boards can be used to make locomotive Power Districts or an Accessory District with a shared power supply. A jumper is used to set either Accessory Mode or Power District Mode. Each board can supply up to 3 Amps continuous duty and 5 Amp peak with a suitable power supply. These boards work very nicely with the Hex Frog Juicer. Max power input voltage: 40V Power Connector: 5.5 mm barrel plug, center positive DCC input: optically isolated DCC Connectors: Screw blocks Max output: 5 Amps for short periods, 3 Amps continuous
Short Trip Point: 5.6 Amps
Short Trip Off Time: 1 microsecond
Short Trip Recovery Time: 200 microseconds
No Auto-reverse Board Size: 3" x 2.5" (76mm x 64 mm)
DAB002 $42.00 USD
12V 5A Power Supply
12V 5A switching power supply. Best for powering Quads and Singlets. Power supply comes with a US 110V plug. By swapping the power cord can be used with 100-240V~50/60Hz power.
DPS012 $13.95 USD
16V 4.5A Power Supply
16.5V 4.55A switching power supply. Best for track power. Power supply comes with a US 110V plug. By swapping the power cord can be used with 100-240V~50/60Hz power.
DPS016 $13.95 USD
DCC Polarity Reversal and Power Routing (Frog Juicers)
Keep your frogs happy with our frog juicers!
Please note - Frog Juicers are DCC (Digital Command Control) devices ONLY. They will not work with DC or 3-rail. They will work with most all DCC systems, Lenz, Roco, NCE (including the PowerCab), Digitrax, Zymo, MRC, CVP. If you don't see your DCC system here, don't worry, there are just too many to list them all!
Alas, they will not work with the Bachmann EZ-DCC system or the SPROG II as they do not have enough power to reach the 1.7 Amp switching threshold. However, if you use one or our boosters then you can use frog juicers and other auto-reversers with these systems.
Peco Electrofrog Update- Hex Frog juicers have been modified to work with Peco electrofrog turnouts (and other power-routing turnouts) as they come. The mono-frog and the dual-frog juicers can be used with a couple of electrofrogs (like on a module) but not if you have more than 4 electrofrogs. You still need to insulate the Peco electrofrog turnouts as in the instructions that come with the turnout. Peco Insulfrogs do not need a frog juicer as the frog is plastic and cannot be powered.
DCC Mono Frog Juicer (polarity reverser for frogs)
For all DCC systems including NCE PowerCab. This board is an automatic polarity reverser for a single frog. Setup is simple, connect two wires to the DCC bus and one wire to a frog. The frog should be fully isolated. When a train crosses the turnout and the frog is the wrong polarity, the frog juicer will reverse the polarity so quickly that the train and the rest of the DCC system will never notice. Should not be used with boosters over 5 Amps. See the Dual Frog Juicer for 10 Amp boosters.
MFJ003U $13.99 USD Qty 5+ $11.66 USD
How to wire the Mono Frog Juicer to a "DCC-friendly" turnout.
For all DCC systems including NCE PowerCab. This board can be configured to use as an automatic polarity reverser for two frogs, a reversing loop, a turntable, a wye, or a crossing. It can also be used as a circuit breaker to control a power district (with the bonus it will reverse polarity if needed). It uses the same basic design as the hex frog juicer but has 33 Amp transistors so it can be used with multi-unit lashups and 10 Amp boosters. Setup is simple, connect the input to the DCC track bus, and connect the output wires either to two frogs or two rails. A jumper controls whether the two outputs act as a pair (i.e. an auto-reverser) or independently (i.e. a pair of frog juicers). Another pair of jumpers controls the current set point for switching, either 2 Amps or 4 Amps. When used for frogs or crossings generally 2 Amps work best and for an auto-reversing application, 4 Amps generally works best.
DFJ003U $29.95 USD
DCC Hex Frog Juicer
For all DCC systems including NCE PowerCab. This board can be configured to use as an automatic polarity reverser for six frogs, or a reverser for one to three reversing loops, turntables, wyes, or crossings. Setup is simple, connect the input to the DCC track bus, and connect the output wires either to six frogs or rails. Two jumper controls whether the two, four or six outputs act as pairs (i.e. an auto-reverser) or independently (i.e. a pair of frog juicer). Should not be used with boosters over 10 Amps. See the Dual Frog Juicer for 10 Amp boosters.
HFJ003U $79.95 USD Factory Direct Price $69.95
What happened to the PowerCab versions?
By a small tweaking of the design the newest versions of the frog juicers work with the NCE PowerCabs.
