Please help on wiring?

[logging]

It seems that feeder wires should be about six" long from the bus line I have planned to run my bus line in the middle of the 30" depth of my layout. My track is in the front or in the back, so that the feeder wires will have to be longer than 6". If I increase the size of the feeder wires will this work with out a lose of power? Any suggestions?

Thanks Russ

[IRONROOSTER]

Yes, increasing the wire size reduces the voltage drop.

You might want to check this page out http://www.wiringfordcc.com/track.htm and the rest of the site.

Enjoy

Paul

[desertdog]

 

Ideally, you want the feeders to be as short as possible. In reality, that is not always possible.  In your case, if your bus runs down the middle of the layout, the track will be no further than 10-12" from the bus wires.  You can get by with #20 wire for the feeders.  Regardless of the wire size, I always wire every section of track, including turnouts, and place feeders no further than three feet apart.

Hope that helps.

 John Timm

[logging]

Thanks Paul I went to the site link great site.

Tanks again Russ

[locoi1sa]

 Russ

 You can always drop a short piece of 20 gauge wire from the track and then splice it to a 14-16 gauge wire to the buss. That is how most of my modules are wired. 10 gauge buss, 14 gauge sub feeder to 4 inch long 18 gauge feeders. Most places the 18 gauge feeders are 2 to a sub feeder. On my modules every piece of rail gets fed. With the rough handling and temp and humidity swings the wiring has to be bullet proof.

     Pete 

[Texas Zepher]

logging

If I increase the size of the feeder wires will this work with out a lose of power?

that is two questions.  1. will it work - yes.  2. without a lose of power - no

Any suggestions?

Don't worry about it. It isn't that critical.

[betamax]

The idea is to keep the feeders reasonable. When they get too long, they can start to cause problems. A foot or two, not really an issue.

You didn't mention what gauge you plan to use for the feeders or the bus. The feeders should be a reasonable gauge for easy handling and soldering. You can always use heavy wire (like 18 AWG) if the run is a little longer than a foot or so. The bus should employ 14, 12 or even 10 AWG, as it will carry the bulk of the power. The heavier bus wire will not have as much voltage drop should you draw a lot of current, and since the track is fed by a number of points, all the current does not pass through just one (lighter gauge) feeder pair.

You could also zig-zag the bus under the table, so you don't need long feeders. Just more work.

[mobilman44]

Hi!

Six inches is extremely conservative, and as indicated so much depends on wire gauge.  In example, if your bus wires are 14 gauge, and your feeders 20 gauge and spaced 3 foot apart, 18 inch feeders should make no difference (that would be noticed) at all.  I would attempt to make them 12 inches or less, but again, you won't notice a difference.   By the way, a lot of folks would say that even my suggestions are conservative.

Mobilman44