I recently picked up Lionel Strang's book on DCC and he states to run the power buss wires parralle to each other but doesn't explain why. Is it in fact important to do so and if so why? I can only surmise some sort of frequency issue or something like that but I am in no way running a high amp system. I have both 14g wires run through a common hold and use 20g sild core feeder wires. it will be no big deal to change it as I had intened to run an aditional aux. pair of buss wires for lighting etc. so they would replace the existing wires. 14g will be a little overkill but at least it's a good use of left over 500' roll of wire.
Thanks again for the imput.
The only reason I can think of is so you don't get confused about which wire goes to which rail. I use plain speaker wire for the track bus and have never had any problems with crosstalk or interference, even with the bus wiring bundled with other wires.
I would think he intends that you keep things tidy and oriented in such a way that doing maintenance later, when you have lost your schematic, won't be a major project. There apparently is a potential problem with loooooong runs of bus wires placed very close together, but it doesn't seem to affect loooooong runs of Code Whatever rails just above them only a fraction of an inch apart. Aren't the rails also carrying the same current and signal....mostly?
-Crandell
Yes Crandel when you put it that way it makes perfectly good sense. If proximity were an issue it would have to be less then the distance between the rails. Being sheilded wire and relatively low amperage I don't believe I will have any problems in the future. In an effort to save money I purchased one 500' roll of 14ga wire. I have marked each wire with their pewrspective colors white & red with electricians tape. My first exposure to this stuff was when my freidn who is a licenced electrician ran a new service panel in my house and shop. I asked him why all one color wire and not seperate colors, he wipped out these rolls of different color tape. He said once you wrap the wire with the specific color tape you aint getting it off very easily.
Thanks for easing some anxeity
That's exactly what I did. bought 500' of 14ga stranded wire, red, at HD for 34 bucks. used white tape every few feet to identify one side, worked great. Used 20 ga wire one side white the other red as track feeders. Worked for me.
Just ripped out too small gauge bus wire and replaced with 14 guage solid . Upgraded the the feeders to 18 multi-strand speaker wire I had left over front wiring the pool for sound. Did a test run with a 33 year old Atlas SD-35 with dirty wheels and the power transmission difference was dramatic.
Allegheny2-6-6-6,If you don't run the two bus wires parallel to each other, how else would you do it? Would one try to run one of the wires in a straight line, while the other is running in a zig-zag pattern? Stringing the wire in a parallel fashion is the only logical way to do it. I can't imagine a scenario where doing something else makes any sense at all.
Now, if you mean something more than simply parallel, I wish you'd describe it. Do you mean running them next to each other in the same loops or holes, or do you mean running them 1" or more apart? At my club, we actually twist our 14AWG bus wires together to try to make them self-shielding against outside noise. I don't know how well it works, but that's what we do (one of our club members is an electrical engineer, and he said it would help).
There is such a thing as "pound wise and penny foolish", and that's how I feel about using all the same color wire under the layout. I don't care if you put colored tape every 2", that's still ripe for disaster. All it takes is for one little wire connection to be on the wrong wire, and you'll have a devil of a time finding it. Trust me. I always color code my wire both at home and at the club, and still there is a mistake from time to time.
And if your electrician friend used all the same color wire for your service panel... That's the nuttiest thing I've ever heard of. Completely insane. And for what? To save a couple bucks? Is it worth the lives of you and any loved ones in the house? An electrical fire is serious stuff, man. One mistake and it could burn the place down or at the very least blow out every expensive electrical device in your house. This is not the place to save a couple lousy bucks.
They make wire in different colors for a reason. Use them.
selector,The major problem with very long wire runs is with detection. The length of the wire run will actually trip the detector so that it's always on. I have this problem at my club on a couple blocks.Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************