Hi, new to the forum and need help building a transformer.
For some background, I'm building a model railway and have come across a problem with the small control boards I'm using to control the track point motors.
The motors are solenoid type motors and require about 3 or 4 amps to throw them reliably. In some cases I require two motors to be thrown so 8 amps is required. The voltage can be from 15 to 20 but 18 seems about right with not too much heat generated.
These control boards have capacitors on them to aid the throwing of the solenoid motors. However, as its been explained to me, these capacitors cause a load to be present when power is first applied. Initially I used a laptop power supply rated at 18V 6A and this was fine until I used more than 3 of these control boards.
I then purchased a bench power supply but the circuit breaker kicked in with more than 4 of the control boards. If I added each board after the power was switched on it would work fine but when turned off and then back on the breaker would kick in again.
So, I want to build a transformer from 240V to 18V AC or DC and 8 amps. What I don't know is what other components are required other than switch, transformer, box, fuse etc.
If anyone could help I would be very grateful. Its become a big stumbling block with my layout.
Thanks
For some background, I'm building a model railway and have come across a problem with the small control boards I'm using to control the track point motors.
The motors are solenoid type motors and require about 3 or 4 amps to throw them reliably. In some cases I require two motors to be thrown so 8 amps is required. The voltage can be from 15 to 20 but 18 seems about right with not too much heat generated.
These control boards have capacitors on them to aid the throwing of the solenoid motors. However, as its been explained to me, these capacitors cause a load to be present when power is first applied. Initially I used a laptop power supply rated at 18V 6A and this was fine until I used more than 3 of these control boards.
I then purchased a bench power supply but the circuit breaker kicked in with more than 4 of the control boards. If I added each board after the power was switched on it would work fine but when turned off and then back on the breaker would kick in again.
So, I want to build a transformer from 240V to 18V AC or DC and 8 amps. What I don't know is what other components are required other than switch, transformer, box, fuse etc.
If anyone could help I would be very grateful. Its become a big stumbling block with my layout.
Thanks