mlehman I guess the first thing I'd ask is, once the bus is run all the way around and come back into proximity with the other end of the bus, why hassle with joining them?
I guess the first thing I'd ask is, once the bus is run all the way around and come back into proximity with the other end of the bus, why hassle with joining them?
I joined both ends together in the wire nut, rather than ending the bus wire run without joining the ends, to avoid a 160 length. If I didn't join the ends together, wouldn't I be better off running the wire as I have done, connected in the wire nut, but cut midway at the 80 foot mark?
Rich
Alton Junction
Rich,
This is way over my head in knowledge of electrickery, but the lit I've seen indicates even a tree architecture of some kind for your bus can be controversial. There's debate over whether it should be configured as a T or not, whether to use a terminating resistor, etc. Making a T is effectively required to do a loop. How else are you going to feed it? And there's no place to put a terminating resistor on a continuous loop, either. Whatever issues people have with those would certainly be associated with using a continuous loop.
I guess the first thing I'd ask is, once the bus is run all the way around and come back into proximity with the other end of the bus, why hassle with joining them? I used #12 THNN wire (typically used inside conduit) for my bus, so it was a lot easier to just tie a knot in it to terminate than to solder the ends together, even presuming there are no issues with a loop.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Rich,As you will recall I only had few loop layouts so,here is my limited thoughts.
On both of my HO 4X8 loopers I ran a boss wire and dropped 3 feeders..There was a slight power drop on the far side of the layout..On the second 4x8 footer I got lazy and just ran jumper from the front side to the back-the wire did run under the layout.Again there was a current drop.
I wised up on my N Scale loopers and used Atlas selectors for blocks.
I would either use a boss and feeders or Atlas sectors was I to build a 4x8 footer.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I have a double main line, continuous loop layout, 160 linear feet of track on each main line. My operating system is an NCE PH-Pro 5 amp wireless set up, no additional boosters, no sub-districts. I run two short lengths of #14 AWG solid copper wires out of my command station. Each of these two short lengths of bus wire is connected in a plastic wire nut to the two ends of a much longer bus wire that runs under the double main line and back into the wire nut connector.
I have researched this issue and read that you should never form a continous loop of bus wire in a small layout. But I have a hard time finding anything that says you should, or you shouldn't, have a continous loop of bus wire in a larger layout.
What are the pros and cons?