HO Slot Car Track Power Hack

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The biggest problem most guys experience with a factory/home track is a lack of good power as they expand their collection of better quality cars. Most set power packs – “wall warts” – only put out about a 1/2 amp of power. Hopped up cars usually need at least 1 amp to run well. In this video, we will see how you can get about 5 amps of power with adjustable voltage for $30 or so.

Youtube Link

19 COMMENTS

  1. Ok so they have the dual power terminals that allows you to run 4 individual lanes, can this hack work with this method or would that be to much power for a single lane, I would have to have 4 adapters…….

  2. …..and you got a real cool house/garage setup as well. Jude keeps bugging me to get back over there to buy some more things……im thinking the method to his madness is to play on your tracks 🙂 I really like your collections also you have lots of cool cars for sure. Thank you again for making us feel so welcome Terry.

  3. I have several laptop power supplies I would like to use. You stated to use a 2.1 mm security cam power plug. Male or Female? Could you post some links to exactly what to use? Thanks.

  4. From just looking at the unit that is being shown here, it looks like the unit is (or is very similar to) the unit on EBay made by a company/distributor (not sure which) called "Yunda".
    There are other units available that are similar but it looks like the Yunda item has the widest voltage range settings available and it's manufacturing quality seems to be superior as it has a metal case where all the others are plastic.
    The unit is rated at 100 watts of power output which give you pretty close to 5 amps at the high end. I even found a 120W unit but it's lowest voltage setting is 15VDC where the Yunda item has a 12VDC setting.
    The model number is YDA206 and it looks like just what the doctor ordered if cost is an issue for you.
    If you do a search for "YUNDA Universal 100W", you'll find it pretty quickly.
    I have plans to build a custom 4 lane routed track using one of these units on each lane. I think they will be far more robust if used on separate lanes and I get power that supports all the possible types of cars that I can run. I'll be opening them up and doing some replacement wiring with heavier gauge wire and wiring them permanently in to my track setup but even using 4 units, you still get away for less than $70. Hard to beat.
    I have to give props to Terry for finding and demonstrating this power option to all of us.
    You really added to our arsenal of knowledge.
    Thanks Terry.

  5. Thanks brother, I built a table with two levels, a tough race track on top and a small town track with three trains on the second level, and your right, the race track is losing power, thus I will incorporate your idea(I just got back into them so I have a lot to learn). Thanks again brother….. 🙂

  6. Hey Terry, thanks for this video. After seeing this (and part 2) I was convinced that this was the way to go for me. I got two of these off ebay and am running them on my two-lane Tyco layout, one for each lane. I made a custom terminal track from a standard 9" straight with 18 guage wire soldered directly to the rails. I also incorporated long controller leads and leads for a jumper track into the terminal track, and made one jumper track from another standard 9" straight, which I placed approximately half way through the track. The design is modular, so I can add as many jumper tracks as I want, but one seems to be working fine for now. I used "t" style connectors on all of the connections. I am currently using Tyco standard controllers, but just waiting on some more connectors so I can wire up some AFX and Auto World controllers, too. Eventually I will get some better controllers. My track is about 70 feet, and before this new setup I was having very noticeable power issues, even when using two of the Tyco X2 "high performance" power packs (one for each lane with two standard terminal tracks). Now there is more than enough power and no noticeable power loss anywhere on the track. I should add that I spent a great deal of time on the track itself to make sure everything is fitting well and making solid connections. The adjustable voltage is very cool to have, too. I like to crank up the power to make some of the slower cars more interesting, and have also used it as a handicapping function to even the playing field to race different chassis together. In my opinion this is an awesome setup. Total cost for all of this was less than $50.

  7. Interested in getting 2 of these for a afx tomy track. One for each lane. Running a 2 lane track. Want to do a larger size track. About 60 feet or more. Was wondering if the tomy afx plug still will run in both directions. Thoughts on this please

  8. I just hooked up a multi voltage laptop charger. I cut the wire and installed Dean's Plugs on a stock wallwart and the laptop charger. This way I still have all the options!
    The power curve it added is great. More speed and power even at the 12v setting, I have it on 16v.
    The original Tri Power pack was to little on Intermediate and way to much on Expert. For the grandkids I can put the Tri power pack back on!

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