# Question for Tony Re RCS-1000



## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Tony,

Yesterday when we were running operations, we had a few occurances of people crossing blocks with the other block under control by a different throttle running the "other direction." On my two TEs the circuit breaker (soldered to blown blade fuses) always pops first before the actual power supply circuit breaker, or fuse, pops all rated at 10 amps.

But on my RCS-1000 the fuse in the a/c transformer case would blow rather than the circuit breaker on the RCS-1000 popping. My a/c supply is rated for 16.7 amps and I fuse it at 10 amps. As you know, the circuit breaker on the RCS-1000 is also rated at 10 amps. I recognize that a 10 amp fuse could easily blow before a 10 amp circuit breaker would pop, and I can safely change the fuse to a slo-blo or increase the size of the fuse to 15 amps, or add a 15 amp circuit breaker on the A/C supply, and this would _probably_ take case of the problem.

But, should I be suspect of the circuit breaker in the RCS and is there a way to easily/safely test whether it is working properly (other than a direct short circuit with a big fuse in the A/C supply)?

Thanks


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## TonyWalsham (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Todd. 

I assume the fuse on the power supply is on the secondary? If not then 10 amps on the primary is way too high. 

As to the power supply fuse blowing. Yes they will always fail before a circuit breaker opens. 
Have you ever had the circuit breaker open? 
If you use a slow blow on the power supply it may not blow fast enough to protect the output circuit components. 
In theory the circuit breaker should protect the innards, but it may not. I now use Polyswitches and so far they have been reliable. 
If you do have a failure of the RCS I can still fix them. I am still using the same basic output circuit for the smaller 3 & 5 amp fully filtered DC track side R/C systems.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By TonyWalsham on 01 Aug 2010 01:01 AM 
Hi Todd. 

I assume the fuse on the power supply is on the secondary? If not then 10 amps on the primary is way too high. 

As to the power supply fuse blowing. Yes they will always fail before a circuit breaker opens. 
Have you ever had the circuit breaker open? 
If you use a slow blow on the power supply it may not blow fast enough to protect the output circuit components. 
In theory the circuit breaker should protect the innards, but it may not. I now use Polyswitches and so far they have been reliable. 
If you do have a failure of the RCS I can still fix them. I am still using the same basic output circuit for the smaller 3 & 5 amp fully filtered DC track side R/C systems. 

Thanks for responding.

Yes, it's the fuse on the secondary windings. It is a simple 16.7 volt, 16.7 amp, big-azzed transformer fused on both sides with an on switch and pilot light for the RCS system.

As I noted, the circuit breakers on my TEs pop before the fuses in their power supplies blow (same big-azzed transformers), but then these supplies are rectified and filtered before their fuses.

I don't recall that the breaker on the RCS has ever popped. (I have added additional capacitance to the RCS and this increased its output voltage ~


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