Hello,
I am going to be using the digitrax zephr system for my version of the Gulf Summit and Sesquanna railroad Atlas R.R. #109 (I think it is).
I am ready to lay track and install feeders, as I have read books such as basic wiring for model railroaders there is a section on terminal strips and bus bars, can someone help me understand how I might use these items to make my wiring easier and less confusing.
Do I attach one feeder from both rails to each side of the terminal strip. How do I connect this to the zephr system? Any help, pictures would be great!
Thanks
AET
Most of those books were written for standard DC wiring, or block control, as it's commonly called. Both terminal strips and buss bars can be used in wiring either type, and, if done properly, can make troubleshooting easier when (notice I didn't say "if") it becomes necessary.
For example, a block (DC) or power zone (DCC) can be wired to a pair of terminals on the terminal strip that is labeled to show which block the wires come from. When you have a problem with your system such as a short or open, this block or power zone can be isolated from the rest of the layout more easily to eliminate it or prove it is the cause.
A buss (two "S's" one "s" is the kind you ride on) bar gives you a common electrical point. An example of using one would be if you use the twin coil switch machines. The center terminal of each machine can be connected to the electrical common point, with the toggle or pushbutton completing the circuit to one or the other coil.
aet wrote:Hello, I am going to be using the digitrax zephr system for my version of the Gulf Summit and Sesquanna railroad Atlas R.R. #109 (I think it is).I am ready to lay track and install feeders, as I have read books such as basic wiring for model railroaders there is a section on terminal strips and bus bars, can someone help me understand how I might use these items to make my wiring easier and less confusing. Do I attach one feeder from both rails to each side of the terminal strip. How do I connect this to the zephr system? Any help, pictures would be great! ThanksAET
First layout wiring principle, the rail does not make a good electrical conductor. A few loose rail joiners and juice stops getting to the locomotive. So, we run wires from the power supply to the track. Ideally each piece of snap track or flextrack would have its own power feeder. Most of us cheat a little, or even a lot, but you still wind up with a lot of feeder wires that have to connect somewhere. Half the feeders want to connect to the plus side of the power pack and the other half want to go to the minus side. The power supply connectors can not accept more than a couple of wires. We could take those dozens of feeders and solder them all together, but neater is to take a couple of brass bars, drill and tap them to take machine screws, and secure each wire to the bus bar by putting it under the head of the machine screw. One bus bar for the plus side of the power supply and a second one for the minus side.
Instead of making your own bus bars from brass bar stock, you can buy ready to go bus bars. You are doing DCC so you can just wire all the track to the power supply. Should you have a short circuit somewhere in the layout, you might want to divide the layout into electrically separate blocks and arrange switches to turn each block off. This permits you to localize the short, you turn off block after block until the short goes away. Then you know which block has the short. Instead of switches, you can use termnal blocks and simply disconnect each block from the terminal strip.
Or, some people run a pair of thick wires (#14 copper house wire is good) round under the layout. These wires are called a power bus. You connect each pair of feeders to the bus. You can just strip the insulation off the bus wire for 1/2", and solder the feeder on. Or, there are insulation displacement splices that work without stripping or soldering to work. This arrangement has the advantage of making the feeders short and the under table wiring easier to figure out. Any wire running to the power bus is a track feeder. By the time you get you switch machines wired, a walk round throttle bus installed , building light wires and other stuff, the underside of even a small layout becomes a rat's nest of wire. Having the feeder wires easily identified by sight is a goodness.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com
I have wired my layout using homemade terminal blocks - much less expensive than store-bought terminal strips and also much more flexible since each one is configured for its specific site and application. The terminal blocks are mounted behind removable panels in the fascia, vertically, where they can be worked on from a comfortable chair in the aisleway - no standing on one's head under the layout or dodging solder drips.
Each rail section (one rail between insulated joiners, or one live turnout frog) is wired to its own terminal on the block, which is clearly marked with an identifying code unique to that section. Then a buss wire can be run to connect all terminals on one side (eg, engineer's left on a southbound locomotive,) and a second buss wire to connect all the rails on the other. (Live frogs will have to be powered through contacts on the turnout actuator.)
The buss wires are connected to the output terminals of your DCC power supply. On a larger layout, they will extend along from one terminal block to the next until you run out of layout to power. In that case, I would have a pair of terminals to connect segments of the main buss wires, and the block jumpers would connect those terminals to the rail termnals.
Other terminals on the block connect turnout actuator power, turnout position indication (to panel lamps) and occupancy detector output (if occupancy detectors are installed.) Making them is dead simple. Just take a piece of plywood [Masonite(r) is harder to mark legibly,] lay out the terminals you need in rows, 1/2 inch apart, drill 5/32" holes and insert #8 screws from the back side. A nut, with a washer under it, anchors the screw to the plywood. Another nut anchors connecting wires, with washers between wires. Mark the terminal identifiers on the plywood with a black ball pen or fine marker, and route the wires so they won't conceal the identifiers.
I separate parallel rows of terminals by 1.25" and offset the terminals 1/4" from the ones opposite. This gives me a marking spot 1/4 x 3/4 for my (maximum 6 digit) terminal identifier, and a clear run for wiring between rows. Wires leaving the block are routed along the frame members and anchored with twist-ties. Parallel wires are gathered into cables at the anchors and secured with additional twist-ties on >6"> centers.
All of my wiring runs from terminal to terminal. The only soldered joints are at the extreme ends - inside the panel, to the rail or to turnout actuators (coils or contacts.) Labor intensive up front, bulletproof in operation.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTT, how do you make your homemade terminal strips? I used to make my own (solder types) way back when I was very broke and couldn't afford to buy them. Inquiering mids want to know!
(BTW- it is properly Bus with one s not Buss with two of them even though you commonly see it that way. Check here and in a few thousand other places that deal with English grammer.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buss
Ray Seneca Lake, Ontario, and Western R.R. (S.L.O.&W.) in HO
We'll get there sooner or later!
howmus wrote: tomikawaTT, how do you make your homemade terminal strips? I used to make my own (solder types) way back when I was very broke and couldn't afford to buy them. Inquiering mids want to know!
Start with an odd piece of scrap plywood. Mark parallel lines 1.25 inches apart. Mark one line at 1/2 inch intervals. Mark the next line the same, offset 1/4 inch. A small block might have only a single line of terminals. For larger blocks, I prefer an even number of lines.
Drill each intersection 5/32" and insert a #8 machine screw in each hole. Countersink flathead screws and place a washer between the screwhead and the wood for roundhead or fillister head screws. On the other side, tighten a nut on top of a washer on each screw to anchor it to the wood. Wires go on with washers between, with a nut on top to secure everything.
When there are two lines of terminals, I mark identifying data to the outside and use the space between terminals as a wire run. Four lines of terminals will have terminal ID data in the space between lines 2 and 3, and two wire runs. (That's why the 1/4" offset. The identifiers can overlap.)
The blocks are screwed to risers under the subgrade (I use L girder framework.) They might be trimmed into neat rectangles, but I'm not a neat freak about it.
I just realized that it has taken me about as long to type this description as it would take me to prep a 24-terminal (6 x 4) block. OTOH, I'm not a high-speed typist.
aet wrote:I am going to be using the digitrax zephr system for my version of the Gulf Summit and Sesquanna railroad Atlas R.R. #109.
tomikawaTT wrote: howmus wrote: tomikawaTT, how do you make your homemade terminal strips? I used to make my own (solder types) way back when I was very broke and couldn't afford to buy them. Inquiering mids want to know!Start with an odd piece of scrap plywood. Mark parallel lines 1.25 inches apart. Mark one line at 1/2 inch intervals. Mark the next line the same, offset 1/4 inch. A small block might have only a single line of terminals. For larger blocks, I prefer an even number of lines.Drill each intersection 5/32" and insert a #8 machine screw in each hole. Countersink flathead screws and place a washer between the screwhead and the wood for roundhead or fillister head screws. On the other side, tighten a nut on top of a washer on each screw to anchor it to the wood. Wires go on with washers between, with a nut on top to secure everything.When there are two lines of terminals, I mark identifying data to the outside and use the space between terminals as a wire run. Four lines of terminals will have terminal ID data in the space between lines 2 and 3, and two wire runs. (That's why the 1/4" offset. The identifiers can overlap.)The blocks are screwed to risers under the subgrade (I use L girder framework.) They might be trimmed into neat rectangles, but I'm not a neat freak about it.I just realized that it has taken me about as long to type this description as it would take me to prep a 24-terminal (6 x 4) block. OTOH, I'm not a high-speed typist.Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Boy, does that ever sound like the way multi-pair telephone cables are terminated to blocks in a dial office or large commercial installation. I've attached--and detached--an awful lot of wires between those washers on those bolts in my time!
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
Does anyone have any photos or diagrams of handmade terminal strips it would help to see them.
Doc
For those who are interested in commercial layout wiring products try this interesting website:
http://www.bustap.com/
Dave Nelson