Wiring for DCC! Next Page. Track Wiring. This is Part I. Wiring the Layout I mentioned earlier that the myth of . However, as with any electric railway, there is wiring to be done. Programming Track-Service Mode. Layout Power and Wiring-> Programming Track. This means that you will be able to program decoders using one set of DCC outputs. DCC Layout Wiring An Overview of DCC Components and How to Plan and Wire a Layout for DCC Presented by David Simmons At the Lansing Legacies 2011. Wiring for DCC by Allan Gartner - Track Wiring for Digital Command Control. Go to Part II. Please read this introduction! There. have been significant changes to this particular web page! There are several sections in this website that. This section on track wiring. Part I, covers general wiring information, testing, and troubleshooting. The menu to the right will automatically. Wiring your turnouts also. Be sure to become familiar with all these sections. Use one color. to mark rail . Use another color to indicate that a section. Use another to indicate a problem rail switch. Use a 3. 15. 6 or 1. I am planning on using Joe's wiring. Welcome to Wiring for DCC for model train Digital Command Control by Allan Gartner. Includes his garden railway and HO layouts. W/link to the DCC Q&A Forum. Tony's Train Exchange is #1 in DCC Command Control. Great Prices - Our prices are always competitive, our service and support is unsurpassed! Satisfaction Guarantee. Automotive Taillight Bulb to. Limit Current to a Track Sub Bus. The 1. 15. 6 taillight bulb has been around for years. The new version of the 1. The science is the same for both bulbs, so read what I have below. Also. before I get into taillight bulbs, I write about the increasingly popular. LED. Can You Use an LED Instead of a Bulb? Unfortunately not. A light bulb works because its resistance. This increased resistance is. The resistance of an LED does not increase. Your locomotive will not run properly. Furthermore, if you. LED will burn out very quickly. Shorts typically occur when a train derails or when points. When bulbs are. used to supply power to a sub bus, only that sub bus will be affected. Why do they work regarding shorts? A. light bulb is cheap and seemingly simple. Why use them to limit current. If this was all there was to a light bulb, it would be. However, its very low resistance allows. So when there. is no short it is as if the bulb was nothing more than a piece of wire. This much higher current causes the. This is where the important thing happens. The. bulb is very hot when lit. The wire inside bulb has what is known as. When the temperature goes. The resistance of the bulb now. This. higher resistance limits the current to the short. When the short goes away, the current flowing through. It goes back to having a very low. This is. why I and others use bulbs instead of circuit breakers. The same goes for circuit. There will still be a lot. Enough heat can be generated to. We haven't had any side effects like welding. I understand that it has happened to some people, so. I felt you should be fairly warned. Avoid. minor welding, melting ties, and lighting that bulb, or tripping the. DCC friendly turnouts if you can. Multiple- Unit lash- ups may. Lots of locomotives with sound have also been. That said. I routinely run double- headed articulated trains with sound up a 3. One way. you can avoid this problem is to buy higher capacity boosters or just. I'm not advocating that. I'm only telling you that could do. What I am telling you is that if you do not routinely run your. I allocated. my boosters based on what the maximum number of locomotives I might run. But since I don't typically run that many, bulbs work. Tail light bulbs. If you used DCC friendly. A switch and the socket are essentially the same. See See. the section on Getting Electronic Parts. Took a punch and opened up the slot on. Flattened it out, drilled a small hole. Solder. the spade on the side of the bulb. Works fine and you do not have to. This bulb isn't as popular. While you can still get them at auto supply. D. He tells me http: //www. As you can. see from the photo, the 3. On the right side of the photo, you can see that the 3. There is another wire on the other side. You will need to pull firmly to remove the plastic base. Keep. pulling. You can then slide the terminations under. That's good because the metal blade (the. And of course, you don't have. You may need to. trim the leads a little bit before securing them to a terminal strip. I've seen this happen. I'm afraid. I prefer soldered connections, too. But. here, soldering will work against your troubleshooting efforts. The first. arrangement shows if you are using bulbs. It could be a DCC circuit. The second shows the use of a block detector and a bulb. These. are just ideas that you can use for seeds for your own desired arrangement. If you are using heavy wire and short blocks, this. For example, my blocks are no longer than 1. I use #1. 4 or #1. The 1. 5 foot length is simply. I can detect a train every 1. You could probably double this. Also, you precisely know. Your sanity is at stake. Remember common bus feeds between booster districts are NOT to. Black for your main bus. Clear or green for. Probably the most important. This convenience. Also, the price may. At Home Depot, they stock. AWG: Blk Beige Red Blu Grn Wht. AWG: Blk Red(Rose) Wht Blu Org Yel Brn Grn. AWG: Brn Org Yel Blk Red Blu Wht. Heavy solid wire for wiring homes. This stuff. is cheap, so may want to base your power distribution. Telephone wire is the thinnest solid wire available. It could be used for your booster network. Telephone wire is red. So you may want to use this for running Loco. Net and particularly. It is heavier than telephone wire, so it is less. The 4 color wire is red, green, white, and yellow. It is also. available from Radio Shack. It comes in 4, 5, and 8 conductors. It. is generally not color coded. Ask a ham radio operator where one. I don't know that I really. I haven't lived long enough to see all the. You definitely need. Is it in the. house or out in the garage? That can be another piece of track or a wire. DO NOT. count on a metal joiner to carry power to the next rail. It WILL let. you down eventually. I expect you knew that already. These. are commonly used for installing aftermarket automotive products like. Frequently they are used to clip onto existing wires for. Not surprisingly, someone might want to use them. DCC power busses. It can pierce a wire's insulation. There is no. need to strip a wire and the connection can be made in a second. Their reliability, WHEN USED PROPERLY, has been. You MUST use the proper one for the wire sizes you. If you are using one that is too small for your wire. If too large. a poor or non- permanent connection may be made. If you must unclamp the IDC, do not reclamp it exactly. When clamped, it must clamp onto a fresh location. The location of the bite need. Use the tool 3. M makes for squeezing the IDC around. Based on reader experience, this seems critical. Trying to. save a few dollars and using a pair of pliers results in IDCs that. There is no way for me to say how. At one extreme, you have the telephone application. Ribbon cables. inside computers generally do okay if the person is mindful of them. Or maybe you will. Do not reattach in exactly the same. With some strain inevitable, it is difficult to say if. If. you don't mind soldering, then stay with soldering. If nothing else. soldering is cheaper. They can be rigidly mounted in a fixed. A splice. IDC, solder, or any other type of . It is close to where it is needed. It MIGHT. not need any labeling at all. Even though. it seemed like a good idea at the time you did your installation, you. You may have to do a lot. If using IDCs. lots of tugging is the last thing you want. Any label at all that provides unique. Label the. wire frequently so you don't have to do a lot tugging. Labels at both. ends of a 2. That is a IDC that is connected to a. IDC that is connected to a wire... If you have a problem in this situation, it. Hold yourself to two IDCs or less. ANY track feed and a booster. If using lugs on terminal strips, solder the. In lugs, even if the wire doesn't pull out, tugging. Your. bus wires are your most important wires! Make sure the quality of their. Make sure. it acts likes a continuous piece of wire and can withstand tugging. But they. are not commonly used for home wiring or anything else. So you will. have a hard time finding them in any store of any kind. Modelers have. tried Radio Shack, auto stores, local electrical distributors and such. You will get the quantity you need at a good price as well. See the section on Getting Electronic. Parts for IDC part numbers and suppliers. If you wait until you find out you have. Don't wait until you wish you had made one of. It only takes a few minutes and a few dollars to. Then attach this instead of a. Any wiring error that. Use this thing religiously. Alternately, if you have a team. Be sure the boosters are not connected. This is so people don't forget to use the. C1 is 2. 5V or higher 1. F capacitor. R1 ohms = (Vbooster - . Vrelay)/Irelay. R1 wattage = (Vbooster - Vrelay) x Irelay. R1 may not. be needed at all as some relays. V without damage. Tony's Train Exchange makes a combination. DCC ammeter and voltmeter. First, let's discuss how we should refer to the voltage. The Average voltage detector should be used to measure. DCC track voltage level. Use this for general. Always useful to detect track voltage drops due to poor. DCC bus wiring. The Peak detector is useful to help visualize how much voltage ringing. K- buck oscilloscope. If. the peak V is > 2. X the average V, one should be adding R/C suppression. This circuit will convert DCC square wave AC to standard. DC. Melted plastic. A half lit or dim bulb is a sign of inadequate wiring. Your booster must be. If not, this test will not work. Do not use your old DC power pack to power your booster. For those who know a little bit about electricity, you may be confused by measuring the bus voltage at the feeder under the layout and reading the same thing as you measure on your track. You might be led to think they everything is good. There is a little bit more about electricity that you need to know. Voltage only drops when you have a load. If you measure the track voltage with a load - such as an operating locomotive or a car tail light bulb - you will then see the voltage drop at your track. This is a little science fair project. Once you do it, you will learn that measuring the track voltage is not a good way of testing if your wiring is adequate. In summary, let me repeat, if shorting your bus at the bus/feeder connection trips your booster but shorting your track does not, you have inadequate feeders; bad connections to your track, bus, or both; or all of the above.
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