Anyone care to please solve a mystery? While working on adding the last feeders to the DCC-powered layout, the NCE starter system started shorting out. I eventually removed all the feeders and still got a short. I disconnected the wires from the control panel to the buss wires to put them on a test track. The "test track" was just a 2' piece of disconnected track. Once done, no short occured.When I conected those wires back to the layout, it still shorted out! The multmeter tested on the layout read 0.00. Yes, I correctly wired everything based on instructions from the NCE corporation and the wires from the control panel don't touch each other.
To ensure I was more thorough, I went around the entire layout multiple times and found nothing metallic on the layout to create a short. I also looked underneath the layout to ensure I removed all the feeders connected from any buss lines.
0.00 on the meter in ohms mode means a short.
What about the far end of the bus wire? Do they touch? Do any of the places that had feeders attached touch each other? If putting a meter on the end of the bus line and getting a short circuit reading, or connecting the system and having it short, the two wires MUST be touching each other somewhere.
I'm going to guess that when working on the last feeders you pulled a bit on the bus wires and brought the two sides into contact where the feeders were attached somwhere along the way.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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