Got a nice deal on an Aristo starter set. The power pack has “Pulse Width Control System”. What???
Quoting Aristo: “This revolutionary power pack uses constant voltage…”
It also goes on to say running the locomotive with a “standard” power supply could damage it.
BS or what?
Ralph
Yes, it’s BS.
Pulse power can damage some motors. Adjustable voltage power supplies is not prone to damaging motors.
Bill Swindell said:
Yes, it's BS.Pulse power can damage some motors. Adjustable voltage power supplies is not prone to damaging motors.
They say it is not “pulse power”.
Ralph
Ralph,
as far as I know ‘pulse “width” control’ pulses bursts of AC power amongst the DC input. This is great for lights and supposedly good for motors (?), however, keep it away from delicate electronic power boards in LGB and Bachmann decoder locomotives or you will let out the smoke. Honestly, I do not consider it viable. Works on Aristo locomotives, apparently, but I would not use. The Aristo Basic TE is also PWC only (no linear selection).
It is “pulse” control that feeds in AC sine wave onto the DC to give slow speed performance. This may ormay not damage motors.
“Pulse width” control is generated square wave DC that varies in “width” to achieve speed control.
Basically it very short bursts of DC at low speed. At full speed the output becomes flat line DC with no pulse.
The Trackside TE generates PWC if you want it (selectable on or off). I’ve used it on Aristo, Bachman and USA Trains motors and Phoenix Sound boards with no issues. I like the low-speed control it gives you and the fact that lighting comes on much sooner. I do remember some issues with LGB stuff though. I don’t have any. I think it was buzzing in the motors.
Like Tony said, there is no AC component.
Generally speaking a PWM drive is quite safe for most motors.
(So called) coreless instrument motors can overheat on low frequency pwm. They are safe using pwm above about 5 KHz frequency.
Most modern PWM output track controllers use around 15 - 18 Khz.
It is mainly DCC equipped locos running in analogue mode that do not like PWM being fed into them.
A DCC decoder can interpret the pulse as some sort of DCC signal and get “confused”.
Thank you Tony and Jon.
So the Aristo statement that a standard power supply could damage the loco is bogus.
I do like the slow speed performance of the power supply. I’ll use it to power the yard and the Aristo 0-4-0 switcher.
Ralph
I wouldn’t say bogus.
A standard DC output transfor controller is unlikely to damage any loco.
However I would agree that with the PWM Aristo transformer controller the lights do work better than on regular DC.
I believe this is primarily due to that particular PWM having a claimed “leading edge” to the waveform, that the lights see before the motors.
They seem to work particularly well with lighting that is designed to use them.
It’s not uncommon far a manufacturer to say ‘only use our product with our product or damage might occur’. I’ve seen it on lots of stuff, especially hobby stuff. It’s a CYA statement. They know that their own stuff works together, but don’t want to test and support stuff from other folks. I think LGB used to say the same thing. The statement does not mean that the other guys stuff won’t work, just that it’s not guaranteed to work. And if you let out the smoke using some other guys stuff, then that is on you. In the real world I don’t think Aristo refuses any warranty claims based on what power supply you used.
PWC has essentially the same waveform as the outputs of almost any RC RX or DCC decoder. This waveform is safe to use on all motors.
HOWEVER, there are some forms of electronics that do not like PWC. Lionel RailSounds will burn up in a short second when exposed to PWC. Most electronics will accept PWC (more generically called PWM) quite happily.
There are some Aristo power packs that impress a pulsed signal on a DC base signal. These are safe to use as well.
The “traditional” pulse power pack, like many from MRC, do impress and AC signal on top of a DC base. These can cause difficulties on some instances.
LGB flatly claimed that if you use ANY power pack not made by them, it would void your warranty. DC is DC and there should not be an issue. However, it was their anal right to claim that they will not provide warranty coverage to users that don’t use LGB power packs. However, LGB stuff typically runs just fine on PWC.
Correct George.
But!!
Some LGB locos equipped with a DCC decoder can sometimes get “confused” with the pwm signal.
So “confused” in fact, they refused to work at all on the pwm signal. They had to be removed and the DIP switches set accordingly.
this is not unusual. Digitrax decoders will also analog convert poorly on PWC. It won’t hurt them, but they just don’t know how to handle it and keep switching between analog operation where they will run and DCC operation where they won’t.
The problem seems to be most severe on SOME kinds of PWC. The Digitrax decoders will run on the PWC from some sources, but not others. One decoder that I have will run on PWC generated from a trackside TE, but not on PWC generated from a 5490 (which I am also using as a secondary trackside TE). Another decoder won’t run on the regular trackside TE but it will run on a 5401.
- gws
Thank you for agreeing with me. 