Rhett, Your post was very interesting analysis to my question regarding the coil.
You analysis is correct, the classical tradeoff is heat vs. power (thermodynamics even equates the 2). But my Gabe is lacking power (so besides a separate 18W dedicated source - which some in the group have successfully tried) - so is there a tradeoff point for the wire size that gets more power but will not burn out. Your discussion uses twice the cross sectional area, that produces 4 times current and heat (power). I think this is over kill regarding a rewiring to get a little more power. I am guessing by the behavior of the device (since it partially works to get up and the light the lights) might only need 15 % more power to get over the problem. I could be wrong. I don't have it in front of me (at a remote place) but what power does the 4 bulbs in it take?). I hear in the commercial R & D world, that most EE's are mostly digital folks and finding good analog folks is becoming difficult. You think MTH and Lionel could have designed this better (the coil) using analog theoretical modeling analysis (I know it's a toy) or even done a more empirical approach (like try using it) before shipping. But I guess the good folks at Lionel don't even understand analog wave phasing - see postings on the Lionel Transformer power bricks. Although, I personally prefer the Lionel modular approach to power vs. MTH. The timeout mechanism is a good idea to prevent junior from working Gabe to exhaustion! Scott Dee S-Trains list sponsor: http://www.americanflyertrains.com All the Flyer you desire...books and accessories too! To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
