It is amazing the quantity of wire that accumulates under a layout. I've got DCC bus, DCC sub-busses, 16vdc bus for misc power, Loconet, RR-Cirkits simple serial bus, switch machine connections and detection coil connections.
I'm concerned about all of this stuff interfering with each other. Which wires can be routed together and which need to be kept apart from each other?
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
I've been here a while, and I've been in the hobby for 60 years. In all that time, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone having cross-talk problems beneath a model railroad. There just isn't enough energy going around those bus lines to affect anything else.
I do keep my bus lines separated, but that's more to make it easier to make connections than for signal interference.
If I were to worry about anything, though, it would be detection and signal equipment. This, by its nature, needs to be fairly sensitive. Still, I've never heard of anyone having a problem as long as everything is properly wired and there are no loose connections.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I'm with Mr. Beasley on this one -- we have a rather large HO scale club layout with 4 power/DCC cab busses under it, and have never had any problems that could be attributed to signal crosstalk.
But detectors and signal circuits would be the most susceptible to such a problem.
No Problem.
But do consider bringing the wires out front. Your old age will thank you for this.
A finished fascia will go over the wiring.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
carl425I'm concerned about all of this stuff interfering with each other. Which wires can be routed together and which need to be kept apart from each other?
LION has 40 workstations and 5 servers all riding along on cat-6 wiring. Only one cat-6 wire connects all of the computers in one building to all of the other computers in the other building. And an optic fiber connects everything to the Internet. Computers can keep all of them itty bitty bits churning along just fine.
You want to keep the stuff away from flourscent lights though.
ALSO IT IS IMPORTANT not to disrupt the geometry of data cables. NO SHARP curves in network wiring. The only difference between cat-5 wire and cat-6 wire is how tightly the twists are made. Cat-5 is good for 100 Mbps while cat-6 is good for 1000 Mbps. The length of the wire is limited to 300' in either case.
ROARING
I agree with others that all of our low voltage runs can play together without much concern with leakage or cross-talk.
The one exception I will make is the Loconet cable. Digitrax recommends that you try not to run the Loconet parralel to current carrying wires for any distance. You may want to cross them over at several places if you have a long run.
In addition to all the wiring you mention I also have quite a few video camera cables as well. Even though they are co-ax shielded cable I don't see any degradation of video or other interference from all the other circuits running under the layout.
Happy New Year! Ed
My wires all run in a bundle around my 16x18 ft around the garage layout, including two 12 ft detection runs. I have experienced no problems.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Thanks all for the responses.
I guess the audiophile years of keeping the power cords on one side of the cabinet and signal cables on the other made me paranoid.
I have two sections of benchwork against a wall that are onlt 6-8" deep. I was wondering if I was going to have a problem with the wiring in these spots.
I do have the DCC bus lines and the detection coil connections twisted just in case. Like the NRA says, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
carl425I guess the audiophile years of keeping the power cords on one side of the cabinet and signal cables on the other made me paranoid.
Correct. 60 cycle AC loves to break up analog audio. Once cables were used for data an even higher standard had to be acheived, and so the twisted pair was necessary. Twisted pair was necessary on analog telephone cables, but that twist was hardly noticable. The difference between cat-5 and cat-6 is all in the twist of the wire, yet it allows speeds up to 100 times faster.
Besides, you are not using AC on your layout (are you?) DC will not bother your audio or your data.