If you are lucky enough to have a toner (in Ma Bell talk a Buzzer) and a probe to identify a pair of wire connect the tone at one end and use the probe on the other end .There will always be some carryover of tone when you find the pair with the loudest that should be the pair. To be sure now use something to short out the pair if the tone stops when you short the pair that the one ,if the tone does not stop then you on the wrong pair and just picking up crosstalk or carryover. 44 years at Ma Bell !
Ron High
MisterBeasley richhotrainIt really gives you paws for thought Lions who use DCC take pride in programming on the mane.
richhotrainIt really gives you paws for thought
Lions who use DCC take pride in programming on the mane.
Which track do you use for programming if your layout features a double mane lion? I ask this beclaws every time I do this, I prey that another loco will not come roaring down on the standing loco. That would be simply catastrosphic, so I need a purrfect solution. Cat'n you help me, Mister B. without being so cattankerous?
Rich
Alton Junction
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
There are only 10 colors. The first thing they teach you as a phone tech is counting by color. Blue/white, orange/white, green/white, brown/white, slate/white can count to 600 in my sleep.
MisterBeasley richhotrain Ahhh, thanks, you're not LION, are ya? Lions know all about those CAT cables.
richhotrain Ahhh, thanks, you're not LION, are ya?
Ahhh, thanks, you're not LION, are ya?
Lions know all about those CAT cables.
It really gives you paws for thought.
No, that's pretty much it. The funny thing with a toner is that there's actually so much crosstalk in voice cable (pre-Cat 3, it's not suitable for any modern networking) that you can pick up the tone if you are near the correct wire. It's just loudest when you're exactly on the same wire that the generator is connected to.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
BroadwayLion The technicians always get it right, that is why they are technicians. Keep the first bundle of 25 pairs separate from the second bundle of 25 pairs. One bundle might be bound with a white string, while the other with a red string. Failing that, you apply tone to one end of the cable and see where it comes out on the other end.
The technicians always get it right, that is why they are technicians.
Keep the first bundle of 25 pairs separate from the second bundle of 25 pairs. One bundle might be bound with a white string, while the other with a red string. Failing that, you apply tone to one end of the cable and see where it comes out on the other end.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Randy, that is a great story, pretty funny in fact.
But on a serious note, how do the technicians get it right?
50 pair cable is great because you cna usually get it free as pulls from offices that are updating, especially now with IP phones, there's only Cat 5E or Cat 6 Ethernet cable and the old phone trunks are npo longer needed.
But - there is a potential pitfall. Most humerously explained in an article by "Uncle Eric" LaNal, known the rest of the world as Dr Allan Lake Rice, one of the pioneers of HO scale in the US. Sometime int he 80's I believe this was, Uncle Eric wrote an article about using cast off 50 pair wiring on his layout, and discovering the ugly truth - while there are lots of color combos, and the wires are niceplu paired with a solid color plus the same color with a white stripe, there are TWO sets of each color in the 50 pair. So even though you hook up the blue/white pair at one end, you only have a 50-50 chance of hooking up the CORRECT blue-white pair at the other end. The article was illustrated with a great cartoon of Uncle Eric, stuck under the layout trapped in the wiring like a fly in a spider web, with his wife handing him a bowl of soup.
The LION uses 25 pair (50 conductor) Cat-3 cable. In the lengths that we use the stuff a company that installs commercial telephone systems will either give you a good price on short sections or he may just give you the stuff, since he would probably throw it out any way. (WTH: It was already billed to his customer)
LION builds his own terminal panels by simply soldering to an array of nails. It keeps things neat, and is most of all cheap. Him just marks in a book what terminal number is attached to what device.
LIONS need cables like this because him has over 50 switches on his layout and he has about 50 relays to dispatch trains from each station platform. The switch and signal circuits are also shown. Only 1 wire per switch please! Each number is repeated at each of 6 panels around the layout, so you cannot reuse numbers. Just wire to the closest panel.
This is what they look like on my layout.
The Control Panel diagram:
The Remote Location:
MisterBeasley rrinker Best option is to pick which colors will go there, write it down, and make them all the same. --Randy Sage advice for all. Establish a color code for your layout wiring, and stick with it. Avoid the pitfall of using whatever scrap of wire is handy.
rrinker Best option is to pick which colors will go there, write it down, and make them all the same. --Randy
Best option is to pick which colors will go there, write it down, and make them all the same.
Sage advice for all. Establish a color code for your layout wiring, and stick with it. Avoid the pitfall of using whatever scrap of wire is handy.
Good advice. I always try to do that.
Stick with a color code at all costs and document in writing your wiring setups.
I spent an evening just recently trying to document a wiring setup that I did last year, having installed a 4-wire conductor and a 2-wire conductor to connect a pair of Tortoises to two pairs of DPDT's so that I could operate the Tortoises from two different locations. Without proper documentation, troubleshooting is all but impossible.
Now this time around, I am using that 6-conductor cable to complete a similar project and, this time around, I will document the setup beforehand.
OK, thanks guys, I will get moving on this project today.
Perfectly adequate, since both the Tortoises and LEDs use miniscule current. Worst problem you could have is using the wrong pair at each end, ie orange/white connected to the motor terminals of the Tortoise and then you goof and hook the blue/white to the toggle switch at the control panel. Best option is to pick which colors will go there, write it down, and make them all the same.
Yeah, that should be fine. I use 4-conductor phone cable for my turnouts, both Tortoise and twin-coil.
I run my Tortoises at 9 volts.
I picked up a 100' roll of Category 3 cable yesterday at Home Depot.
It is a 6-conductor cable of 24 AWG wire that I want to use to power some Tortoises and LEDs in a remote location of my layout. The cable will be powered by an MRC Railpower 1370 that is rated at 18VA. I will be using Miniatronics DPDT toggle switches to control the Tortoises.
I assume that this cable will be adequate for this purpose. Any thoughts?