OVERVIEW
The HOSTLER 2100, an AC THROTTLE, is a
solid state, full feature design, momentum throttle
with conventional Whistle/Horn, Bell, and
Direction controls. The standard HOSTLER 2100
produces a variable AC output proportional to it's
input voltage. It is available with a maximum
currents of 3, 6, and 12 amperes. The HOSTLER
2100 is meant for a more deluxe operation of
your trains. It's designed to be panel mounted
utilizing either the fixed voltage from an existing
power transformer or from any other appropriate
power transformer. Dallee offers power
transformers to suit this need as well but they
need to be mounted and wired appropriately.
DESCRIPTION & LOCATION OF
COMPONENTS AND CONTROLS
On the face of the HOSTLER 2100 you will find
the main SPEED control in the center. Just above
that are 3 LED's. The left one is Green and
labeled "THROTTLE" to indicate power to the
HOSTLER 2100 unit. The top center LED is
Yellow and is labeled "TRACK". This LED will
illuminate from dim to brighter based upon the
amount of track voltage that is present set by the
"SPEED" control. To the right is the Red LED
labeled "OVERLOAD". This LED will only
illuminate when the unit has sensed an excess
current condition.
To the lower left is the "Direction" push button
followed by the "W", Whistle/Horn, push button
and last the Bell push button.
Moving to the rear of the HOSTLER 2100 PC
board you will find the power input/output barrier
strip (lower left hand corner) with four terminals.
The left two terminals are for the output to the
track. The right two are for the transformer input
power. These are labeled appropriately on the PC
board. The "HOT" input connects to the high of
the power transformer and the "C" connects to
the common. The output "HOT" is the main
power output and the "C" is the common output.
The output common is connected to the input
common on the board to ease wiring!
PANEL MOUNTING
The HOSTLER 2100 face also contains 4
mounting locations. One in each corner. These
are set for clearance of a #6 screw. The control
panel needs to be cut out to allow for the main
PC board to clear while allowing a lip for the rest
of the face plate to catch on the edge. There is a
template provided on the last sheet to provide for
simple mounting. The black objects are heat
sinks and will get warm during normal operation.
Care must be taken to allow for adequate
ventilation and electrically so that nothing comes
into contact with them or the main PC board or it's
components. When mounting, no power should
be present on the board or nearby to prevent
shorts from accidentally happening!
THROTTLE OPERATION
Operating the HOSTLER 2100 is quite unique in
that it's meant to give you a more realistic control
of your conventional AC train. To get started with
a wired and powered up unit, you can experiment
with how things work but first, read the full
explanation of things. The "SPEED" control is
quite obvious. If it is set full CCW, the output will
go to "0". When advanced, the output will
increase but at a delayed rate. This allows you to
set the throttle to a speed that you want your train
to achieve without gradually turning up the output
manually. It also prevents jack rabbit starts and
stops when using the "SPEED" control to do that!
Now here comes the more interesting part. When
you set the "SPEED" control to say 55 or so and
you want to sequence your engine (change the
direction to Neutral or Reverse), you can just
depress the Direction button for a moment. Upon
depressing it two things happen, first the output
voltage is immediately turned off for the duration
of the button press but secondly, the output
voltage is also reduced. This way you do not get
an instant jolt to your engine. The longer you hold
down the direction button, the further the output
voltage will be when the button is no longer
depressed. This makes for a very realistic
reversing of your train for not only series motors
but can motors as well! The key is you have to be
patient since the voltage can become too low to
start the engine up instantly but it will increase
steadily to your set voltage / "SPEED". It may
take a slight bit to get use to this but when you
do, you'll see how nice and easy it is to reverse
without moving the "SPEED" setting. Of course,
you don't want to be at a very high speed when
doing this since the output voltage is
instantaneously turned off upon depressing the
direction button (if your engine coasts, then it
doesn't matter).
Overload operation with the HOSTLER 2100 is
handled quite differently. When excessive current
flows either from a short circuit or too much
current being drawn by the train, the overload
sequence will start. First thing that happens is the
Red OVERLOAD indicator turns on. At the same
time, the output voltage to the track is set to zero
and Yellow LED is turned off since the output is
zero. The speed setting is also set to zero (even
though the actual SPEED control is set to what
you were running at). Next, there is a second or
so delay and then the Red LED is turned off and
the output is allowed to come back on but from
zero volts! The HOSTLER 2100 will continue to
cycle through the overload sequence until the
overload is cleared. If you know that you didn't
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