Circuitron Tortoise & DCC Specialties Hare Accessory Decoder

Each turnout will draw about 35mA counting the LED current and the stall current of the Tortoise switch machines. Thus if you have 30 of these, you will draw approximately 1.0 amperes, which is well within the ability of a 5amp booster. As a note, unless you leave S1 with ALL switches OFF, it is NOT a good idea to run the Hares on a separate bus. This is because if you turn ON S1 switches, they allow the Hare to route its input power to the rails. This means each switch is a point that can tie two boosters together, which will cause you problems. 5amp DCC boosters have plenty of current to operate the Hares directly from the track. We have 34 turnouts on a layout all using Tortioise and Hares. They are all run directly from the track bus, which is much easier to wire than a separate bus for the Hares only. If you are worried about running a switch and causing a short, simply implement auto throw. With auto throw you eliminate the possibility of running a switch and causing a short (so you don't NEED a separate bus), and you also prevent the derailment that can lead to equipment damage (particularly if it goes sailing off the layout! Don't ask how we know this.)