# wiring multiple power supplies



## leonus (Dec 17, 2013)

Hello all and God bless.

I have a question, and I'm betting that you guys have an answer...

I want to expand my layout, and am wondering how to add additional power supplies.

What I have now is a rather large afx track with one supply running to each lane. I did this by copying the way the terminal track was wired, only with leads soldered to the rails underneath, the positive going straight to a rail, and the negative to the rail through the controller. Works great..

My question is, how do I hook up two more power supplies to lengthen the layout??

Do I run the positive straight like before, then the negative into and out of the same harness that goes through the controllers, along with the existing negative??


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

More power supplies ???? Ahhhh.... just ONE with enough Volts and AMPs is enough, but you should add jumpers too... It's time for you to invest in a proper power supply, or go to 1:1 automotive batteries.


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## leonus (Dec 17, 2013)

That stuff is a bit pricey for me right now, maybe someday.

I really just need to know how to wire additional wall warts right now...


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## chuck_thehammer (Oct 24, 2007)

you can NOT connect multiple power supplies...together... 

they will fight with each other...

as no 2 have the exact same voltage... and one will feed into the other and one will overheat and fail....
may work for a week or 2 but they will fail.


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## Tycoarm (Jan 7, 2006)

leonus said:


> That stuff is a bit pricey for me right now, maybe someday.
> 
> I really just need to know how to wire additional wall warts right now...


Just solder your wires under some pieces of track. Depending on lane amount just number from the main terminal piece, rails 1,2,3,4 and so on. Now all you have to do is connect all the wires from rails 1,2,3 & 4 from the taps to the main terminal. To make sure they are connected correctly, disconnect each tap from the rest of track and check to see if each piece has power to the correct lane.

Hope this helps.


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## leonus (Dec 17, 2013)

I think I get what Ralph meant by jumpers now. That's probably the way to go.


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## slotking (May 27, 2008)

you can wire them for amps or to combine voltage.

to combine voltage
neg to pos ------track
pos to neg -------track

for amps
neg to neg----- track
pos to pos----- track

i have seen people do this for years with no issues.


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## leonus (Dec 17, 2013)

Having spoken to an electrician friend yesterday, I think maybe what I should do is run extra positive wires ("jumpers") from my existing power supplies to the track at the farthest point from the original hookup, making sure they are on the same rails as the existing ones...

Does this sound right??

Thanks everyone for your help


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## LDThomas (Nov 30, 1999)

To complete the jumper, you also need to run a wire from the controller to the farthest point on the track. Need power to both rails...


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## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

*Terminology*

Leonus, "Jumpers" are different than "Power Taps". 
ie- jumpers would be soldered wire connections from track to track piece, to make better connections. A "Power Tap" is what you just described, meaning to provide a further away section of your track, another imput from your power supply/controllers, as DC current doesn't flow as far as AC does. Ideally, both "Jumpers" And "Power Taps" are necessary on longer Sectional "Toy" tracks.


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## leonus (Dec 17, 2013)

Oooooooooh

I get it now.&#55357;&#56841;


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