terminal strips

[m sharp]

Hello:

How are terminal strips wired?  Is all of one side wired in series and the other side the same?  I think a terminal strip might work where I have 4 buss lines feeding into my power source.  What do you think?

Mike

[rrinker]

 Are you talking about the type with two rows of screw terminals? If so, only the terminals across from each other are connected. Adjacent ones are not connected to each other, but you can run jumper wires or you can buy 'bus bars' that connect all of the terminals of a given side. They usually come in even numbers of terminals, so for 4 bus lines plus the power connection you'd want 6 or 8 row strips. Plural - you'll need two, one for each side of each bus. And two of the bus strips to link all ther terminals togethern. Then you can connect each bus line to a screw terminal and run a wire to your power supply from another terminal.

:|:|:|:|:|:|:|:  is what they look like.

                             --Randy

 

[maxman]

m sharp

I think a terminal strip might work where I have 4 buss lines feeding into my power source. 

What exactly do you mean by "4 bus lines"?  A DCC bus consists of a pair of wires, so I would presume that what you have is two pair of wires.  If this is the case then you can get away with a barrier block, or terminal strip, having 4 screw terminals on each side.

On the command station side of the strip, you would have one lead going to the first terminal and then jumper this to the second.  The second lead would go to the third terminal and get jumpered to the fourth.  These jumpered connections are not in series.  What you have technically done is create a junction point in each lead from the command station.

On the track side of the strip, one wire from each pair of wires gets connected to the first and second screw terminals, and the second wire from each pair gets connected to the third and fourth screw terminals.  None of these wires is in series.  What you have done is create two pair of parallel connections, technically connected to the junction point in the lead from the command station.

You have to make sure that you have the same wire from each pair of track side leads connected to the appropriate track side screw terminals.  If you don't you will experience a short circuit when the engine crosses over the gap where the two buses connect.

[m sharp]

maxman

What exactly do you mean by "4 bus lines"? 

I have a bi-level, point-to-point layout with my power source near the central portion of the layout.  Therefore, I will have four pairs of buss wires heading out from the power supply--two sets left and two sets to the right.

Mike

[fkrall]

Here's how I soldered jumpers to a terminal (barrier) block, routed the feeders (18 AWG) and bus (14 AWG) into a block, and interconnected the blocks for my Powerhouse Pro system

 

[superbe]

m sharp

Is all of one side wired in series and the other side the same?

Hi Mike,

I used jumpers as shown in the attached link. They are very easy and convenient to use. I'm not sure this was my vendor but it shows what's available.

 

http://www.alliedelec.com/search/productdetail.aspx?SKU=6070157

 

Good luck,

Bob

[m sharp]

Thanks a lot guys.  My question has been answered.

Mike