I am near completion of an 11x7 ft L-shaped switcher layout. I will be using an MRC Progidgy Advance Squared DCC set up. This will be my first experience with soldering and wiring. Is it acceptable to have the power bus wires first connecting to the 'out' connectors of the command station? The bus would be powered from the start with this approach and the feeders could be tapped off of it. One reference I studied showed the power bus wires first being put into place under the layout (with all the feeder wires connected) and as the last step, the command station/power was tapped into the power bus wires. My thought with all this has been that I could connect my power to the bus wires first.....tap in one feeder....run the loco to check for probs......and do the same for the other feeders. Thanks in advance for you comments and advice.
123mike
I've always done it the first way - connect the bus to the DCC system first, for the very reason you listed - to test as I go. Seems kind of silly to do all the work and then connect it to the end, only to find you made a mistake somewhere. If you test as you go, then you know if it suddenly stops working, it HAS to be the last feeder you connected that caused a problem.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I needed 3 sub-districts with circuit breaker boards on my layout because I had a couple of reversing loops. I wanted to build a shelf holding the command station, the 3 circuit boards, a power strip, etc. The shelf was suspended between two legs of my 5'x10' layout. I built this electronics shelf in the garage at the workbench, hooking up to a piece of test flextrack as I went to learn how to use the NCE system as well as ensure my electronics central setup was sound. Then I added the shelf between the layout legs, then added track, adding buss wires and soldering rail joints and adding feeders as I went. Testing things a bit as I progressed ensured I found any new electrical problem, and checked out any gross track problems that needed immediate attention before progressing.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
The magazine has not using it's "Dream, Plan, Build" mantra as much lately, but it's a good one. As I'm now in Phase 3 of layout construction, with Phases 1 and 2 fully operational and blessed with scenery, one thing I've learned is that wiring really needs to be part of the Plan stage. I made the mistake early on of building first and doing the wiring more or less ad hoc. As a result, I've got too much layout on one circuit breaker. After that, I planned better and added breakers and bus lines to better divide the layout.
Build and Test should be a constant cycle. That way, when you do inadvertently introduce a problem, you'll know where to look for it. It will almost always be the last thing you did.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I recently redid mine and ran two buses. One for accessory power and one for DCC/track power.
For the acessory power, I used a computer power supply and the 4 pin molex adapters. It has 12V 5V and ground. that gives me 12V, 7V (12 hooked to 5), 5V, is regulated, and getting splitters are cheap and easy. But I run 14/16 gauge cable crimping my own housing for the main run, and use cheap Y harness splitters where I need to branch power. It handles up to 13 amps. And that's quite a bit.
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TE-Connectivity-AMP/1-480424-0/?qs=ko0lFLRalIOE%2FKdC2RXHBg%3D%3D
For the DCC bus, I use the same 4 pin harness with different wires. One for the command station communication bus, and one for the track power.
Makes connecting and disconnecting stuff so much easier.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!