LocoNet Cables

[chustace]

Does anyone have a good source for loconet cables?  What would you recommend using for LocoNet Cables.

Thx.

Curtis

[gmpullman]

Randy Rinker provided a link here for some reasonable Loconet cables:

 Scroll down when you get there

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/p/253136/2827056.aspx

 

Good Luck, Ed

 

[Phoebe Vet]

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/mt-267/7-mod-mod-cable-for-data/1.html 

 

[Phoebe Vet]

If you buy a crimp tool and 6 conductor connectors, which are very cheap at All Electonics, you can buy any flat, six conductor telephone cables, cut one end off and turn it over.

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/cmp-6/6-pin-crimp-on-modular-plug-rj-12/1.html 

http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/mpcpt-6/modular-plug-crimp-tool/1.html 

 

[Onewolf]

As others have mentioned, if you need a lot of loconet cables you may want to consider making them yourself.

Coincidentally, I made my first loconet cables this morning.  It was extremely easy.

I had ordered the flat 6 conductor wire and connectors from monoprice.com:  http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=102&cp_id=10222&cs_id=1022205&p_id=953&seq=1&format=2

http://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=105&cp_id=10513&cs_id=1051305&p_id=7270&seq=1&format=2

And a I bought the Klein rj11/rj12/rj45 crimper from Home Despot.

Now it's very easy (and cheap!) to build whatever length cables I need.

[Phoebe Vet]

If you bought your Digitrax system new, it came with a Loconet cable tester.

 

[chustace]

Thx for the info guys!  I appreciate it.

 

Curtis

[DigitalGriffin]

Loconet uses a standard 6 wire telephone cable.  (RJ12 standard)  But the end connectors are flipped opposite of each other.  (One side is up while the other down)

go to home depot/lowes/local hardware store and pick up a kit.

[Phoebe Vet]

Just to clarify:

Telephone cable is wired pin one on one end to pin 6 on the other.

Data cable is wired pin one on one end to pin one on the other.

Otherwise they are the same.  On most, BUT NOT ALL, Digitrax accessories, either type will work, but it is so easy to convert telephone to data that there is really no reason to not do it right from the beginning.  It can save much troubleshooting aggravation down the road.

[rrinker]

 Yes, phone cords are the ones that are flipped.

For throttles and the radio panels and stationary decoders, it doesn;t matter. But for additional boosters, if the wire is flipped (using a telephone cable), the downstream booster will be out of phase with the command station, which will cause a short when a loco crosses the gaps between the two power districts. The BDL-168 block detector also uses the Railsync data in the Loconet cable for timing and it needs to be in the proper phase as the track power, so a flipped cable will cause problems there as well.

 Bottom line - just use the correct, data style cables so you don;t have weird problems down the road.

                              --Randy