There's no need for a Tortoise bus to use #12, if Lowes has #14, use that. Even 20 tortoises only draw what one modern loco will draw, so the voltage drop is practically nothing. Not to mention they are quieter with less than 12V anyway.
It depends on how much you need - I've needed something like 2-300 feet in the past, and at the prices then, it was cheaper to buy the 500 foot spool than 2x 100 foot spools.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks for the tip Randy. Do you think 14 AWG would be sufficient for lights and other DC accessories? If so, then I can readily get my hands on enought 14 AWG and Lowes sells 12 AWG in Red and Black for my track bus.
More than likely - how much stuff do you plan to connect?
DO they still have #12 white? I think I got mine at Home Depot, but I went with red and white because in the shadows udner the layout, red and black tend to look alike. It also matches the #20 wire I used for feeders, which is a loosely twisted stuff marked as alarm wiring - it untwists easily enough, especially when cut to length (a 1 foot section is only like one twist). Colors matched the bus, which made things easy to get right, and the #20 solid made for easy soldering to track. I soldered the feeders to the bus, the sizes are too different for any of the usual suitcase connectors. My Ideal Stripemaster (or the Klein equivalent) makes quick work of paring back a section of insulation on the #12 strnaded, a tight wrap of the #20 feeder around the bus, and it actually worked fine as I worked along for a whiel before going back to solder them. A slight offset to one side or the other between the red and white bus and where I stripped it for the feeders prevented shorts. Afterwards it can be covered with liquid electrical tape, or just taped.
I really do not know at this point what DC lights and accessories I will be doing, but I want to pull bus wires for them now before I put the plywood base down. It is just easier to pull wire standing up.
I imagine in the future that I would like to light some buildings and do signal lighting.
My layout room is only 29' by 12' so 14 AWG might even work for the track bus, but as it is easy to get 12 AWG in black and red, I plan on using it.
I am also running convention 120 house wire around the layout benchwork for outlets. They will all be on a switch that kills all power to the layout.
If you want 12 gauge stranded wire in a variety of colors, check out Remington on eBay. I use Remington for all my layout wiring needs.
Rich
Alton Junction
JPDMy layout room is only 29' by 12' so 14 AWG might even work for the track bus, but as it is easy to get 12 AWG in black and red, I plan on using it.
My layout is in a 33x15 foot room. I'm using 14 AWG wire for my track buss in a DCC format. Depending on the chart you reference, you can run 40 to 50 feet from the booster. Since I already have 14 AWG house wire, I'm going to use it rather than spend more on higher cost 12 AWG. No need.
I'm breaking up the layout into power districts using DCC Specialties PSX1 breakers so I can limit the bus to 50' or less.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I'm a bit of a heretic, even on the track bus issue. My previous train room was 24x24. I used #18 wire for my track bus, and thinner wire for everything else. I had no problems.
Really, thick bus recommendations are really based on much larger basement-filling layouts or club layouts. Sure, your technical numbers may be better, but I would imagine that available power and voltage on most of our home layouts is substantially above typical needs, and we would never notice the effect of thinner bus wires.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
JPDI need to acquire 12-gauge stranded wire for my layout. The problem I am having is finding a source for it in 100-foot rolls
I found it on eBay available in several colors in 100 foot rolls.
I usually buy (bought) all of my wire at electronic supply houses. My favorite is Skycraft in Orlando, Florida. You can usually find anything wire related by the foot in these places.
LastspikemikeSince you only power one or two switch motors at the same time do you really need a heavy gauge bus pair to power those?
He stated he is using Tortoise switch machines.
All Tortoises remain powered all of the time. Every one on the layout is always powered at once.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
LastspikemikeSure but they aren't wired differently, surely.
Surely, they are. The Tortoise is a stall motor drawing a slight amount of current, about 15 mA each, at stall. The polarity is reversed to move the motor and throw arm to the other direction.
I'll have to take a reading later. I have about seventy Tortoises all wired with 22 ga. POTS wire. I doubt the total current consumed is much over one amp.
LastspikemikeThe common wire will carry the total amps but the other two wires will form parallel connections. The multiple parallel connections all share their cross section.
Yes, the twin coil shares a common but each coil is independently energized (unless you mistakenly push both buttons at once) so you can't "multiple parallel" the normal and reverse wires thinking you're only using half the current.
Good Luck, Ed
At 15 milliamps each, it takes 67 Tortoises to draw 1 amp. If all the Tortoises were at the end of 50 feet of #14 wire, not spread out along them - 50 feet of wire from the power supply, 67 Toroitse connected at one end, 50 feet back to the power supply, they would still get more than 11.3 volts. Inconsequential voltage loss. And the real layout wouldhave all the bus with the Tortoises at the far end, they would be distributed down the length of the bus. ANd if you put the power supply int he middle, that's a total of 100 feet of bus length, 50 feet one way fromt he power supply, and 50 feet the other way. If you actually have half that number of Tortoises,, and they are fairly evenly spread out along the bus, the voltage drop even for the farthest one would be neglibile.
Bottom line - don't worry so much, run some wire and then run some trains.
rrinkerAt the end of 50 feet of #14 wire, not spread out along them - 50 feet of wire from the power supply, 67 Toroitse connected at one end, 50 feet back to the power supply, they would still get more than 11.3 volts.<SNIP> Bottom line - don't worry so much, run some wire and then run some trains.
Yes, and to make it even better, Tortoises function pretty much the same at voltages between 7 and 9 volts. I always set mine up for 9 volts, and if they drop even one whole volt, all is still OK!
MisterBeasley I'm a bit of a heretic, even on the track bus issue. My previous train room was 24x24. I used #18 wire for my track bus
I'm a bit of a heretic, even on the track bus issue. My previous train room was 24x24. I used #18 wire for my track bus
Repent!
12 AWG does seem like overkill but the hobby is full of "Tim Allen's" where overkill is a part of the profile persona. It probably won't cause and problems. I'm trying to find a happy medium between "going large" and seeing how thin I can get away with.
SeeYou190 rrinker At the end of 50 feet of #14 wire, not spread out along them - 50 feet of wire from the power supply, 67 Toroitse connected at one end, 50 feet back to the power supply, they would still get more than 11.3 volts.<SNIP> Bottom line - don't worry so much, run some wire and then run some trains. Yes, and to make it even better, Tortoises function pretty much the same at voltages between 7 and 9 volts. I always set mine up for 9 volts, and if they drop even one whole volt, all is still OK! -Kevin
rrinker At the end of 50 feet of #14 wire, not spread out along them - 50 feet of wire from the power supply, 67 Toroitse connected at one end, 50 feet back to the power supply, they would still get more than 11.3 volts.<SNIP> Bottom line - don't worry so much, run some wire and then run some trains.
Back when I still used those jumbo green blocks, I ran them on 12 volts - but that was because I had 2 bicolor LEDs in series with the motor as panel indicators, reducing the actual voltage to around 8 volts. Slower and quieter than running them on a full 12V to the motor.