Custom test bench - part 4: Improvements

I was planning to make improvements for my test bench and with my recent issues with the BB 16000, it is now a good time to act!

General switch

A while back, I added a 120V switch to turn on and off the main power to the test bench. The issue is that the switch was dangling on the side and I still had no idea if the power was still on. My goal has been to properly install a main switch with LED indication.

I choose this one on Amazon:

The wiring diagram is pretty straight forward:

I already wired out one side from the power extension; I now have to do the other side, which is the white cable below.

It works great and it's exactly what I was hoping it would look like:

DCC protection

After a bit of research I decided to install several products from DCC Concepts. I reached out to them and confirmed that all three products can be installed together and offer optimal protection:

1. Intelligent DCC Circuit Breaker - link
2. DCC Surge Protector - link
3. Bus Spike Suppressors - link

I will install and test on my test bench, and also plan to install them on the main layout later on. For now, I will connect those into Track 1, but ideally I'd need to find a way to protect Track 2 and the ESU Tester. Here's the wiring diagram:

I did a quick test and it certainly handles shorts. In the iP-CB, there are two available extensions: one for the LED status and one for the reset button. I decided to put those on the front panel of the test bench:

And voilà !