Ken writes:

“Greetings. I have somewhat of an elaborate HO layout (for a residential layout) with over 30 commercial businesses, half dozen residential houses, a campground and multiple streetlights. They are all powered by 2 adjustable 3 amp 3-24 Volt power supplies on 2 buses under my layout. Most of the lights are LED’s that draw around 20 milliamperes each, but some of the “grain of wheat” incandescent’s go up to 70 milliamperes. I figured I could safely wire up about 40 – 50 lights on each power supply, because I’m not even close to 50% capacity. But, one of my power supplies started humming yesterday and it felt much warmer than the other one. I don’t know if I got a bad unit or not, but I’d like to upgrade to a more heavy duty power source to give me more head-room and security knowing I’m under my load limits. Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of power supply I should be looking for? I really like to be able to dial them back to around 9-10 volts in the evening so the lights are more pleasant around the track. Thanks in advance for your responses.”

If you can your thoughts with Ken, then I’m sure he would appreciate any advice he can get. Simple use the comments link below.