Have an MRC 350 with a hand held, teathered control. Due to the shape of the proposed layout I would like to have several places to plug the hand held unit into. What guage wire should I use to connect the remote plugs to the power pack?
Also, can I run a wire around the layout connecting to each plug to it or should I run seperate wires to each plug going back to a block at the main panel?
Thank you,
cowman Have an MRC 350 with a hand held, teathered control. Due to the shape of the proposed layout I would like to have several places to plug the hand held unit into. What guage wire should I use to connect the remote plugs to the power pack? Also, can I run a wire around the layout connecting to each plug to it or should I run seperate wires to each plug going back to a block at the main panel? Thank you,
First, I would check the manual for any warnings or concerns with what you propose.
Second, do you have the plugs and jacks, or are you rolling your own?
Now, some thoughts:
Tethered DC handhelds either transmit full track power through the tether, or they just feed a control signal to the base unit. If full track power is in the tether, two of the tether wires go to the track (or block feeds). If it's just a control signal in the tether, the tether wires go to a base unit (your Tech 4 350) and not to the track.
If the tether is carrying track power, you want a reasonable wire size to prevent voltage drop and allow overload detectors to work correctly. The wire size is going to depend upon the maximum current output of the controller. If it's 1.5 amps (as an example), you would want at least 20 gauge wires in the tether. Wire resistance is 0.01015 ohms/foot. A 10ft tether adds 40ft to the current path or 0.406 ohms. Voltage drop in the tether is 0.6 volts at 1.5 amps. Bigger wire would not hurt anything except tether flexibility.
If the tether is only carrying a control signal, current in the tether is going to be less than a tenth of the track power. But losses may be more critical. IIRC, telephone handset wire is 26 gauge, and that would be a good starting point for me. 28 gauge twisted pair (Ethernet) would probably work well, too.
I am assuming the MRC allows multiple jacks in parallel - the setup you envision. Whether you use a star or bus setup to wire the multiple jacks probably doesn't matter.
A question for you to find out from MRC is whether the handheld and base unit has a memory, or does the train stop as soon as you unplug. This feature (or lack of it) might impact where you locate your jacks. Personally, due to small layouts, I do not want the trains running uncontrolled at any time. So with my handheld (home grown), the train should be stopped before I unplug and then plug in again. My way also solves the problem of what to do if plugging in is not successful for some reason.
my thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I used 6 conductor phone wire and the ends for same.
I already had a crimp tool for phone and data that I could use.
I suppose you could daisy chain, but I found it easier to home run back from each loaction.
I think all the stuff either came from Lowes or on-line.
Good luck.
Thank you for the responses. Clicked or didn't click something so messages weren't sent to my mailbox. One of the things I'm not so keen on on this new format.
The hand held plugs directly into the power pack, nothing to the track. Plugging in or unpluging doesn't effect control as the pack retains the memory. Will get a copy of the instruction sheet, so as not to mess things up.
Knew I needed 6 wire conductor. Found a couple female plugs at a sale. Will have to see if I can find a 6 conductor with plug on or see if my son can get the correct crimping tool. Radio Shack has the right wire, but doesn't have ends on it.
Thanks again for the responses,