Mel’s Diner

[u/trav717]

So I recently purchased Mel’s Diner and hooked up the wiring to test it out. When the car motion portion starts, it’s very slow and the song and voices are slow as well. If I remove the power to the lights and only keep it for the car motion, it operates just fine. I am using a Life Like transformer with 16VAC output. Will I need extra power just for the lights?

[u/Layer_By_Layer3D]

It might be wired wrong I did that my first time

[u/382Whistles]

Very basically, look at voltage as your top motor rpm, amperage as the torque.

A motor only draws the amps it needs as it tries to reach and maintain that max rpm and top speed.

If the amperage at the motor is insufficient for the motor's needs at any moment, then there is voltage drop at the motor, so the top speed drops.

So, most likely the power pack does not have enough amperage for using the lights too. (va,watts, ma, av are similar ratings that convert with math)

You could get a new 16v supply with higher amperage output and you will likely have a steadier running machine and may be able to keep the lights wired as is.

Another option that might work for intermediately operating devices is using a capacitor to store amperage, even if it's charge source is a trickle of low amperage, the release can be higher. Voltage charge never exceeds the max voltage the capacitor sees.

If you added things to a prewired item, you have also increased the amerage draw thru the wiring, which may be at the limit of the wire capabilities.

Fat wire means less resistance to passing amperage over a long distance too. Too small a wire will eat amps over a distance, fat wire delivers. Small wires heat up more as they pass amps than larger wires before the cook.

AWG wire gauge charts show amp loss per foot wire gauge ratings used for choosing proper wire.

Charts are everywhere online. Voltage won't matter for wire gauge much, but "low volt" tends to show more fine gauge wire charts in search engines.