Wire guage going to Atlas switch machines.....

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

[Those of you who 'lurk' here will detect progress on the project by the questions I'm asking.....Hmm.]

Anyway, I now believe I have my power-to-lots-of-snap-switches-at-once problem solved (At least I have some pretty serious capacitors ready to be hooked up :-)

Which leads to the question:

Circuitron instructions for their "Snapper machine power supply" says the wire to the switch machines should be "18 guage or heavier".....

Holy Moly!..... And I'm going to solder that to those itsby-bitsy little wires that stick out from the switch machine!!.... and we won't even *think* about the size of the wires that make up the coils themselves....... :-)

Please tell me what I'm missing here? - 18 (Eighteen!!) guage wire is what I use for feeders (not the main bus) on my slot car track!!.... and then, you want me to fix that great big wire to those little suckers?

Can someone please confirm I'm not going nuts here! - I have plenty of 22ga 3 core I was figuring on using for the task (max run will be < 8ft / 2.4m btw).

Please only respond if you know of any reason(s) why this would be a bad idea! - My best guess is Circuitron are simply being 'conservative'....

Thanks,
Ian

[rrinker]

Since you say "itsy bitsy little wires" i assume you are in N scale, as #18 wire should hook to th e screw terminals on the Atlas HO machine just fine. IIRC, on my last N scale layout I used some 3-conductor #20 or maybe #22 wire to run to my Atlas switch machines, using a home made equivalent to the Snapper.
The heavier wire the better, as the more voltage will get to the switch machine and throw it more firmly. For SHORT distances, it's not too critical, as the losses over short distances even in smaller wire sizes is not significant. But run to the other side of an 8 foot layout and it can start to add up. Compoundng the problem is that the loss increases with the more current you draw. Take your slot cars, since there's only ever 1 car on a given lane at a time, #18 wire is PLENTY. Triple the current load, and the voltage loss triples as well - sya you are running a tripleheaded train. This is why you should never use stuff like phone wire (#24 or sometimes even SMALLER!) for your track power. It's also too small to properly throw switch motors - they draw a LOT of current, just for a very short time. The purpose of the Snapper or other capaictor discharge power supply is to supply a massive burst of energy to move the solenoid, but only for a very short time so the coils don't burn out. Use too small a wire, and you only defeat the purpose. I believe I used to use a 3-conductor wire sold at my LHS under the Model Power brand, but you cna likely find the same wire cheaper elsewhere. I really wouldn't go smaller than #20.

--Randy

[camarokid]

Randy took the words right out of my mouth. Use the 22 guage doubled up for a short drop to the 18 guage (or heavier) wire. If indeed you are in N-scale you might be hard pressed to wrap both wires around the screw but, I just know you'll come up with some ingenious plan to overcome this obstacle. Since I'm in HO, I use short drops of the wire that comes with the machines to solder to 16 guage wire. Hope this helps you?
Archie
P.S. Lay the wire on top of each other if it's still stuck together. Enjoy!!

[rrinker]

Short drops of a smaller wire won't hurt. Such as running #12 for the main DCC bus, and then having #20 feeders drop from the track. Less than a foot of feeder, there won't be any noticeable drop, and it's a bit tough to solder #12 wire to HO track. For N scale DCC you can usually use #14 bus and #22 feeders.
Do N scale Atlas switch machines have screws liekt he HO ones? I seem to recall that mine had the wires permanently attached at the machine end, and the only screws were on the buttons themselves. If that's still the case, don't chop the wires too close to the machine, leave enough to run down under the layout and connect to a terminal strip. Then run heavier wire back to the control panel. No issue then with attaching the heavy wire to the thin wire of the machine. And no soldering required.
And DEFINITELY use a chunk of #18 to go from the Snapper output to the switch buttons, if you are still using the Atlas control boxes.

--Randy