# Powering a long track



## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

I have a track that's not too terribly long, about 35 feet in all 4 lanes. It's tyco track throughout and I gave each lane its own power pack so there are 4 of the 9" straight sections, 1 power supply and 1 controller per lane. The problem is the cars slow down about half way around the circuit. I thought if I ran wiring from the power strip track over to the track farther from the power source it may help keep the track connections and continuity stronger across the whole track. Well apparently that doesn't work because it makes that lane stop receiving power. I'm pretty sure I did it right. Anyone else every try this that can give me some info on how its done?


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

it is called a power tap and it sounds like you wired it backwards.


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## Modlerbob (Feb 10, 2011)

When you add a power tap make sure on each lane you connect left rail to left rail and right to right in the direction the car is travelling.


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## [email protected] (Jan 31, 2010)

*Which track for a portable door track?*

wrong post sorry


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

BewstdGT said:


> I have a track that's not too terribly long, about 35 feet in all 4 lanes. It's tyco track throughout and I gave each lane its own power pack so there are 4 of the 9" straight sections, 1 power supply and 1 controller per lane. The problem is the cars slow down about half way around the circuit. I thought if I ran wiring from the power strip track over to the track farther from the power source it may help keep the track connections and continuity stronger across the whole track. Well apparently that doesn't work because it makes that lane stop receiving power. I'm pretty sure I did it right. Anyone else every try this that can give me some info on how its done?


 When you do power taps, follow this procedure.

After attaching all the wires to all the power tap tracks and the power source, make sure the power tap tracks are not connected to the rest of the layout (just sperate the connection on each side). Then try out each lane on each track to (a) make sure it is getting power and (b) it is running in the correct direction. Then connect the tracks back together and you're done.

Joe


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## eastside johnny (May 13, 2008)

What part of OHIO are you in? We're on the shores of Lake Erie west of Cleveland


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

I was pretty sure I had the lane connections correct, which is why I was so confused. My guess is it's backwards because when I put a car on it and pull full throttle you can hear the slot car humming like it's trying but has no power. So it's probably a short. I gave up for the night but I'll try to disconnect it from the tap tracks and try again tomorrow with your method. Thanks Joe!


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

dumb question: you said there are 4 terminal tracks. did you isolate each lane under the terminal tracks? (meaning, did you cut some of the connections under the terminal tracks so each power pack is connected to only one lane?) if not, that might be making things wonky...

this is what i'm talking about:



















hope that makes sense

--rick


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

Eastside, I'm just south of the Akron area.

Rick, I didn't cut any power connections. I think I understand the picture though. My goal is to give each lane it's own power source to prevent cars from slowing down. If only 3 people are racing the guy running on his own power will be faster than the 2 guys sharing one power supply. So I thought I could plug in a power pack for all 4 power strips and just use one lane per powered track section. Here's basically what I did:









I just tried it on 2 of the lanes to see if it would work. All it did was make the car stop moving. completely. If that was done it would just maintain the same direction of power, right?


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

you haven't tapped the common to the power tap track. so that connection is still all the way back to the original terminal track through the rail only. 
that shouldn't cause the condition you are describing though.


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## Grandcheapskate (Jan 5, 2006)

Remember something else. You have to be aware of the direction the cars are going on the power tap track - if the tracks are in opposite direction, the connections underneath have to be swapped. You must make sure you jump positive to positive and negative to negative.

Picture a four lane track. If you placed one terminal track on each pair of lanes opposite each other (so that one had the terminal block on the outside of the track and the other on the inside), plugging in the standard controllers and power pack would have each pair of lanes running in the opposite direction. In effect, this is what you may be doing on a two lane track.

Joe


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

alpink said:


> you haven't tapped the common to the power tap track. so that connection is still all the way back to the original terminal track through the rail only.
> that shouldn't cause the condition you are describing though.


yeah, what he said. or to put it another way, you need to add the bright red wires in this pic:










hope this helps. and it sounds like you got the other issue sorted out... (i sent an email in response to your PM :wave: )

--rick


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

As it turns out, I fixed it. The problem was I did have it shorted. The diagram I posted wasn't even how I soldered it. Once I changed this it helped a lot! Testing the same cars they responded much better in that section of track. 

Now that the cars are moving quick I realize how much I wish I had room for a longer table! These 9 foot straights aren't enough!! I have a little landscaping and scenery left to do and I'll post some pics of the setup shortly. Thanks for all the replies and getting me straightened out. 

FYI, don't work on this stuff at midnight because your brain lies to you. And you WILL make mistakes!


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

*don't wanna say I told you so ........ but*



alpink said:


> it is called a power tap and it sounds like you wired it backwards.


like I said!


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## Hotrodzz3 (Apr 5, 2011)

In this picture it shows that you are still running 2 lanes with one power pack, you need to cut the connectors under the track as in post #8 and another thing to remember is when doing this on a 4 lane track is that you will have to put the tracks with the plugs on the inside and outside of the track which will reverse positive and negative on 2 of the lanes, which can be fixed by reversing the plugs on the power packs for either the 2 inner lanes or 2 outer lanes. Tyco did sell reverse polarity power packs with the 4 lane sets.



ParkRNDL said:


> yeah, what he said. or to put it another way, you need to add the bright red wires in this pic:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

I think the last time I did it was right because it seemed to help, but I did not cut the tabs for the other lanes. I assumed since there would not be a controller plugged into the next lane that it would not be pulling any power from that power strip. Here's the schematic of how I wired it:


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## Tycoarm (Jan 7, 2006)

With four lanes you will have eight rails, tag them by A B C D E F G H. Rails A C E G will be the power, while rails B D F H will be controller.

Since you have two of the terminals, lane one (A B) and lane two (C D) facing the oposite direction, you will have to wire them up like this to get the cars running in the same direction.










You will also have to cut the power cord to get the red tracer cord of the power pack (negative side) to the power rail.

Hope this helps.

Tycoarm/Tycosaur


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## BewstdGT (Jan 4, 2005)

Thanks Tyoarm your diagram would be much easier for someone else to understand. Good thinking with the letters!

Do you really have to cut the unused controller strips on each of the 4 power tracks? My understanding was that if there's no controller plugged in it's not sharing that power since nothing is completing that lane's circuit. I suppose to be thorough I could cut the tabs?


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## Tycoarm (Jan 7, 2006)

I would as power is still feeding to both rails and controller is still in the circut as well.


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