japan kato power with US kato trains

[tokyojef]

Hi!

Im new here.

I was wondering if using a Japanese setup with US Kato trains with work alright together.

I live in Hokkaido Japan where the voltage is 100 volts AND 50 hz, compared to the US of 60 Hz--

output is 12 VDC , yes?--should be alright?

Felt it is better to ck with you all, who have some experience in this....

Im from old schhool HO of 1981, sure some things are quite different...

just geting back into it!

Thanks for your time on this one!

Jeff :)

[cteno4]

Jeff,

 

welcome! great you are getting back into your trains! japan will be a great inspiration for your hobby!

 

the trains themselves dont matter (they all run on the 0-12vdc that a power pack from anywhere in the world ultimately puts out) its your power pack. if its a kato power pack with the wall wart, look on it to see the power input. you are correct japan is 100v 50hz and us is 110v 60hz. kato sells a japanese, US and euro power pack (the throttle is the same with 16vac input they just change the wall wort). its too bad they just dont do a universal 100-240v 50/60hz wall wort.

 

if you have a us wall wart you can buy a stepup transformer to plug into the wall and plug your throttle into this. this allows you to use any 110v 60hz us item in japan then that does not have a universal ac input rating.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[CaptOblivious]

It might be OK, actually. Something this simple probably does not depend on the precise specifications of US power. That said, I would watch it very carefully for overheating—the power pack, not the train. The train will be OK. That said, probably better to just go ahead and buy a Japanese throttle—These can be used safely in the US should the need arise (I regularly use bought-in-Japan power packs here in the US to drive my trains).

[KenS]

Wouldn't it just tend to put out less power using a device designed for 120V on 110V? The Hz difference shouldn't affect a wall-wart, and Kato's power packs actually take an AC input (my US-spec Kato wall-wart puts out 15V AC).  I haven't taken the pack apart, but given that the output at max throttle is around 14V, I'm betting what's inside the blue case is a simple full-wave rectifier, and it's probably identical circuitry to what the Kato Japan packs use.  They just use either a different wall wart to put out 15V, or the same wall wart with a different label to put out something around 13.5V AC (which the pack would then convert to about 12.8V DC).

 

I'd worry about overheating using a Japan-spec supply in the U.S. since that's using something designed for 110V on 120V. That said, I'd still recommend keeping a close eye on it and unplugging it when not in use. If anything ever goes wrong, you don't want someone finding a non-approved device plugged in. I'm not sure how insurance works in Japan, but in the U.S. they can get sticky about things like that.

[lurkingknight]

japanese wall plugs/ac adapters are all capable of switching 50-60hz... simply because depending on which side of the country you're on, it will be different. When I was in hiroshima, I believe the power was 100v @ 50hz while in tokyo it was 100v @ 60hz  Going the other way, I'm not sure. The wall plug will have a label on it that will say if it can switch or not.

 

Oddly enough, my digital piano from yamaha has a 100v 50-60hz wall plug and I bought it here in canada. So it would suggest that jp wall warts will work in north america without issue, even at higher voltage... but then again.. that's yamaha... a much larger company than kato.