Special High Capacity Reset for PowerShields

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PowerShield Tech Info
PowerShields Boost Restart for Broadway Ltd

Gerry Albers has automated the PowerShield's high capacity manual reset feature. This further improves the PowerShields' ability to restart many Broadway Ltd and sound equipped locos that produce high inrush currents upon restart.

I have developed an automatic reset circuit for your PSFour/Two that I thought you might be interested in. The diagram and a photo are attached. I built two for myself and a friend built one for his layout and they work great.

The reset circuit takes advantage of your statement describing the JP2 operation: "If the section powered by the Power Shield ... [does not reset], then the manual reset may be required to allow a clean turn on after a fault is corrected". The reset circuit is a simple free-running 555 timer that forces your PSFour (all 4 circuit breakers) into a manual reset state for one second (shorts pins 3&4), then allows it to go back into a normal state for two seconds. This cycle repeats endlessly. If no short is present, there is no effect. If a short is present, there is still no effect because your PSFour is still tripped. When the short is removed, power will be restored within a maximum of 3 seconds (usually about on second), no matter how many locomotives are present.

I tried several other circuit breakers before my dealer, Gordy Morgan (Gordy's Hobby Express), recommended yours. These included the Digitrax PM42 and the DCC Specialties OnGuard - neither provided good reset capability but furthermore caused cross-channel interference with the other circuit breakers.

You may have already solved this problem in other ways [alternate solution], so feel free to ignore this message. If not, you might want to share this circuit with your customers.

Gerry Albers

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