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Has anyone ever used ethernet wire to carry power for a layout? I have left over solid core wire from a networking job and I am thinking that using ethernet wire with RJ45 connectors might be a relatively simple way to wire everything up. I am also planning to make the layout so that it can be broken down into seeral sections so wiring between the sections needs to be diconnectable. I am also planning to have slot car track in the layout (actually more running feet of slot car than train). I will have lots of switches so obiviously having only 8 wires per cable could be a limitation. However, if I plan carefully and use the same color wire from each then it should be farily easy. Could also use a patch panel to make connections at the main controller station. The patch panel would also then allow for a certain amount of reconfiguration and expansion. For example if I run the brown wire from each of eight cables to various points along the outside lane of track 1 I can then run a jumper patch across all the brown wires at the patch panel to make a complete circuit and could add an etire section to the layout simple by runnign another ethernet back to the main and tapping into the existing power bus. Concerns are of course the the ethernet wire can handle the current without wear/damage/fire. <br /> <br />I have also thought about using old SCSI cables - which have a lot of wires - however, even though I have a lot of them I am not sure if i have enough with the right connectors type (male and female) to do what I need to do - and the individual wires inside appear to be smaller and stradnded - so might be harder to work with.
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