Bus wires

[Phoebe Vet]

I don't like bare wires and I don't like suitcase connectors.  You will not find either in anything that has been professionally wired.

I run a three wire bus, Rail A, Rail B, and Booster Ground.  I use color coded wires and make all connections at terminal strips.  LABEL everything.  My power bus is daisy chained from terminal strip to terminal strip.  If I ever have to trouble shoot, each segment is easily isolated by removing two screws.  If I have to make any changes they are easily made at the terminal strips.  For example, I recently added detection (BDL168).  I simply removed the jumper from the rail A barrier strip and connected the BDL 168 in place of the jumper.

[BroadwayLion]

If you have a bus that is grounded, then it is grounded, and the metal table is also grounded.

Sounds good to me. (Providing of course that your wiring scheme even calls for a ground wire.

LION Aux Power System...

ROAR

[Soo Line fan]

mfm37

What the heck, the two rails on top are bare.

The key word being on top. And the rails are held very securely.

Who knows what can happen under a layout. Is it really that hard to strip a wire and solder?

[mfm37]

What the heck, the two rails on top are bare. You could use bare wire for the bus as well. As long as nothing metal ever shorts it out and you remember to mark each bare wire because they will look the same and cause confusion. Remember to clean the tarnish off if ever trying to solder a connection to it later.

Personally, I'll strip insulation and reinsulate after connecting feeders. Something just bugs me having bare wires  carrying power.

Martin Myers

[betamax]

Just use regular wire with the insulation.  Makes it easier to keep track of which wire is which, and when you cross wire them, easier to find.

You can get ScotchLoks that will handle 12 and 18 AWG wires, I think they are brown in colour.  Makes connecting the drops easier without the stripping and cutting. Digikey sells them in a bag of 100 for about $60.

[tomikawaTT]

Since my benchwork is steel, running bare bus wires would be tempting fate a bit too much.  I personally opted for #12 solid, three different colors, for my three busses (not DCC, but still necessary) and run them to connectors on terminal blocks where they share a stud (or two) with anything in the immediate vicinity that's supposed to connect with them.

I have a wire stripper that acts like a pair of pliers - squeeze the handle and you can open up a nice gap in the insulation wherever you need access to the wire.  After you solder the drop (or twin coil switch machine common, or whatever,) just coat the joint with liquid insulation - much neater and quicker than tape.  That was my technique before I went to all screw-down connectors.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1064)

[selector]

I just don't feel comfortable about lengths of bared copper wire, especially if my power supply can force 5 amps through them when my sweaty forehead makes contact with both wires at once accidentally, and in so doing it forces them to contact each other at or near the same place.  Hot X'd 14 gauge copper wires will leave an interesting story permanently etched on my forehead if the short detection doesn't kick in quickly.

That said, if you string them well apart, say 30 cm, with plenty of tension and holders so that the likelihood of their coming into contact with each other is exeedingly remote, I don't see much of a problem.

I still don't like it, and would not recommend it.

Crandell

[BroadwayLion]

LION has used (and still does use) Bear wires. The most dangerous part, aside from letting them touch each other is getting them away from the Bear. (I have a very nice Polar Bear by my computer--his name is Chocolate)

Oh Yeah... wires... LION has a bare copper braid that runs around the entire layout, and that is "common" for all of my circuits. It must be GROUNDED, because stray currents on it will do strange things to your layout. The Track Bus if 14 ga shielded and happens to be stranded because it is easier to handle. For this part of the project the LION *did* spend real money to buy a 250' spool of 4 conductor 14 ga stranded speaker cable. [LION was building a DC layout and wanted SIX CABS--silly LION, how many heads does he think he has anyway]

Now LION went in the opposite direction. The left rail is GROUNDED (remember the big copper braid?) and the right rail is at +10.5 volts of regulated power at 15 amps. You do NOT need 15 amps, but the LION did not know that, him knew that he would have 12 motors running at once. So far I have not moved the ammeter up to 2 amps yet and that is with six trains running.

(BTW: Did I mention that my trains cannot go backwards?) Well, the *are* Subway Trains, and subways do not go backwards, for there is another train just 300 seconds behind them.

So, LIONS and subways aside, do you know what you want to use for your bus yet.

And what's with the bus anyway... I thought we were modeling TRAINS!

ROAR

[The_Ghan]

Trouble

Trouble

Trouble

Use shielded multi-strand wire for your BUSS - AWG14 is an excellent choice.

Use shielded single core wire for track feeders - AWG22 should be fine, maybe even AWG26 for N or Z-gauge.  The single core is easier to solder to track or track joiners.

For less than $2 you can have a simple wire stripper that is easy and quick to use - and that includes postage.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Punch-Down-Network-Wire-Cable-Cutter-Stripper-Orange-/140884990911?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item20cd665bbf

Best of luck.

Cheers

Nige'

[retsignalmtr]

You can use bare copper wire but you must insure that the two will never come in contact with each other.

[willy6]

I read that 14awg is a good size wire for DCC bus wires. I was thinking of using bare solid copper 14awg wire to avoid the hassle of removing the insulation for the feeder wires. It will be mounted in the non-conducting wood bench work. Any thoughts on this concept would be greatly appreciated.