currently I'm in the process of installing some 120 volt fluorescent lighting under the layout for maintenance and construction purposes. the lights are single tube 24" long (two of them). all of the wiring was done with standard 14-2 romex wire. i tried to keep it as far away from the dcc bus as possible however it does cross over a couple of track feeders. just wondering if this will cause any complications with the dcc system.
The DCC signal is so much higher in frequency that 60 Hz from fluorescent lights should not bother it.
You never know what will effect the DCC signal. Possibly the ground in the romex will absorb any inductance enough to prevent interference. In the building where my club meets, there is some cell phone equipment and a large cabinet powering the cell phone array on the roof in a room next to ours.. Several months ago we started having radio problems with both of our Digitrax systems, losing control while operating the layouts. Someone had serviced the cell equipment and rolled the cabinet to the middle of the room. last week one of the clubs members moved the cabinet back into the corner it was originally in and now the interference is gone.
retsignalmtr Someone had serviced the cell equipment and rolled the cabinet to the middle of the room. last week one of the clubs members moved the cabinet back into the corner it was originally in and now the interference is gone.
Someone had serviced the cell equipment and rolled the cabinet to the middle of the room. last week one of the clubs members moved the cabinet back into the corner it was originally in and now the interference is gone.
But cell phones and DCC radio throttle systems both operate in the 900 MHz range. All DCC radio throttles, regardless of brand name, are restricted by the FCC to a very narrow band of frequencies that are very close to those used by cell phones.
My clubs showroom is lit with eight, four bulb flourescent lamps on the ceiling. No interference from them. I have had problems with regular radios on the AM and FM bands. Even digitrax's tech help couldn't give me an exact answer.
There's no telling what AC will do to DCC. You said "under the layout for maintenance and construction" so it will be off when the layout is operating. So even if there is some interference, it would be limited to only when the lights are on.
I am by far not an electrical engineer but I am planning to build two decks in the up coming weeks for an expansion of my railroad and will use florescent lighting on both on the top section to light the lower section and on the lower section to light my desk and eventually a dispatchers desk with a CTC machine.
This is not some great revelation that only I have in my twisted mind florescent lighting is widely used on may many layout as a source of lighting. If all connections are properly made and no bare wires are exposed you should not experience any problems what so ever. If your really concerned and just simply want some piece of mind then insulate the feeders and buss wires with some added wraps of electricians tape.
I think what the qualified experts in dcc are referring to is not to have any other wires come in direct contact with your buss wiring if any bleed through were to happen it would definitely be at a connection point.
The incident regarding the club and the cell phone equipment I would have to suspect had something to do with their repeater system or possibly something on their end was not properly shielded or grounded.
You should be fine if you follow a couple of basics
1. Keep AC wires and light fixtures as far away from the buss as possible.
2. When crossing wiring make sure the AC does so as close to 90 degree (perpendicular) as possible. Voltage doesn't induce perpendicular, only parallel or something close.
Springfield PA
Two simple rules of thumb. Avoid long parallel runs with the two systems in close proximity. And where hte wires need to cross, secure the wires and make the crossing as close to 90 degrees as possible. These two steps will minimize any chance of induced voltage from one system affecting the other and applies to 120 VAC lines vs low voltage model railroad wiring as well as disparate model railroad systems, such as the DCC track bus vs a signal input system.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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