Does anyone have a wire supplier that has multi-colored wire sets? My layout is getting out of control and before I go too much further I want to re wire it the right way. A bulk distributor would be the best. Looking for 18-22 gauge.
Thanks in advance.
ARR
Radio Shack, Home Depot, Lowes. A LHS, local hardware store.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Try Demar Electronics. www.demarelectronics.com. I've ordered from them when I can't get it locally. They have a good selection of gauges and colours.
..... 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.
You want to rewire???
How many wires do you need, and what are they for?
The LION uses 25 pair cat 3 (telephone) wire. He attaches them to panels around the layout:http://broadwaylion.com/LION/mr1112c.jpg
Panels are located every 10 to 15 feet. The main panel is of course at the control panel. Obviously each pin can only be used once. Keep a notebook with all of the pin-out connections logged.
You get this sort of wire from you local telephone cooperative as lengths under 20' long are hardly useable by them, or from a telephone contractor of the sort that wires up office buildings. You may have to pay for the scraps, or perhaps buy the stuff off the spool in which case you would expect to pay about $5.00/ foot or so but it *is* 50 conductors. The nice thing about this stuff is that you can sit in the isle in a chair instead of swinging under a table hanging by your tail.
So crossover No. 12 over there is controlled by wire number 16. You connect the switch on your control panel to pin 16, and at the panel closed to the turnout you connect the switch motor to pin 16. Obviously the lion runs a heavy GROUND wire around the layout: 14 ga bare copper is sufficient. The other pole on your switch motor connects to that.
LION uses Tortoise switch machines so (+)12v DC drives the circuit one way and (-) 12v DC drives the switch the other way. The same single wire system can be used with twin coil machines, and even with double crossovers: Just use a pair of rectifiers before the switch motor connecting (+) to the normal position and (-) to the reverse position. LION used this system for double crossovers where using remote relays: 0 volts = normal; (+) 12 = track 1 to track 2; and (-)= track 2 to track 1.
On a big layout like what the LION uses simplicity is important, and if what I said sounds complicated remember that it only uses one wire for the control switch, panel indicator, turnout motor, track signals and track and signal logic relays. When you are cheap like a LION you want to save money on the numbers of wires you uses, or do you *like* hanging thousands of wires.
TRACK POWER is a separate system, for that you need 14 ga wire, the LION uses stranded because it is easier to handle. That you buy at Home Depot or some such place.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Fry`s electronics sells both solid and stranded in many colors from 16(stranded) & from 18 to 24 ga in both solid and stranded. Buy the 100foot rolls. Their price can`t be beat , at least by the many retailers I have looked up. Also the wire is tinned copper. For 12 & 14 ga wire I use Dale electric in upstate N.Y. Their price for 14solid is .09 a foot & it comes in 9 different colors. 12 ga is simirally quite cheap when compared to the box stores that charge .33 a foot for 14 & .38 a foot for 12 here in FL.
Bob D As long as you surface as many times as you dive you`ll be alive to read these posts.
allelectronics.com
Thanks Sea Monster. Exactly what I was looking for.
Try Grainger