Just a few questions:
If you have answered YES to all of the above, you get a gold star and can either leave or stick around and give others the benefit of your experience.
If you have answered NO to any of the above, you might consider rectifying the situation. Note that I am NOT advocating any change to your electricals! What I am suggesting is that a little time spent making a paper record of the pertinent details (schematics, parts lists, color codes...) will be time well spent when the inevitable failure and troubleshooting comes into play.
My own layout is well documented, with a rather complex wire and component identification system specifically adapted to the (admittedly obsolete) control system I use. Since detailing it would unduly confuse the issue (it took articles in four different months of MR to describe it back in 1974) I'll spare you the unnecessary agony. But please, for the sake of anyone who might need to troubleshoot your electricals in the future, document everything now.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - analog DC, MZL system)
I'll second your excellent suggestion. Although my layout is considered mid-sized, DC (coal-fired, steam driven) I have 2 8x11" control panels with 1 more to come online, several power packs, dozens of turnout probe points and a heap of mini-switches and some relays to keep track of. Without documentation, I'd be dead in the water! It's amazing what I can forget in only a few months! Even a modest sized layout can get complicated quickly. Colour coding your wiring helps in both DC and DCC to keep polarities straight.
George
I use MS Acess and MS Word and document everything:
How I weathered a freight car.
What decoder/speaker combo I installed in what loco.
Wiring color coding guidelines for my layout.
Maintenace issues on the layout.
And so on and on.
There are so many facets to the hobby that sometimes it can be literally years between similar tasks. Having organized notes saves a HUGE amount of time.
Craig
DMW
While it's tempting to keep everything on a hard drive, I strongly recommend printing a hard copy record.
Hard disks die. Paper doesn't
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTT wrote: While it's tempting to keep everything on a hard drive, I strongly recommend printing a hard copy record.Hard disks die. Paper doesn'tChuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
No single source system is bullet proof.
Paper can get removed from a binder and used to draw a pony, or make a paper airplane.
Please don't ask me (or my grandchildren) how I know that.
My system is a computer database, with a couple of reports printed out and kept in a binder in the train room. Computer hard drives are backed up once a week.
Yes, I HAVE had a computer go to electron heaven in a cloud of blue smoke. Backups saved the day.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I use very little documentation, except in key locations where I do use some labels. The rest is done according to a wiring protocol, where I use different types and sizes of wire to do different things. Blasphemy you say?
Perhaps, but I believe strongly that troubleshooting skills are even more important than documentation. With documentation, you can only fix what's documented. With troubleshooting skills, you can fix anything -- most of the time -- by simply following the system from where a fault is noted backed to where it's in Green status. And if you're working within a known system architecture, you're good.
I'll admit the older I get, the less I like crawling under a layout to trace wiring, but you're gonna have to do most of that anyway, even if you have it documented. I probably cut two years off a 15 year build by skipping writing everything down. Typically I can find a fault within 3 minutes once it's noticed. It's very rare to have to think on anything overnight anymore, in fact can't think of the last time that's happened.
Obviously, on a topic like this YMMV.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
My DCC system and my turnout controls are pretty basic and consistently color coded, so I have no real documentation about what's what in that regard.
However, I have reams of paper wiring diagrams for my route control and signalling system which involves what seemed like miles of wire. For my signalling system, I tore apart a 50-pair phone cable which gave me 100 different color codes (and I used them all!) to wire all the detectors, relays and signals. For the few times I had to diagnose a problem, without them - the system would probably still be malfunctioning or ripped out in frustration.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
I don't document anything on my layout as my layout is DCC with minimal wiring. Since I am the only person to work on it I don't see the reason. On the other hand my signal system will have complete wiring diagrams and color coded wiring to help with troubleshooting.
When I rewired my clubs control panels I did document the updated wiring because other members may have to troubleshoot problems someday.
My turnouts all have letter-number codes, and the wires that go to them are marked with the same code using one of those little round string tags. The turnout codes are marked under the layout with a Sharpie on pink foam. But, this was really more of a guide during construction, and to be honest, 7 years later I've never had need to refer to the codes again.
For some of my terminal strips and barrier blocks, I label each wire. I'm better at this where I've got a section boundary where I might one day need to separate the layout to move to another home, something which isn't planned but will likely be a sound financial decision given the tax-and-waste government we have here in Massachusetts.
I use a color code in my wiring, so I can tell at a glance if I'm looking at track wiring, structure wiring or streetlamp wiring. Anything that doesn't fit the code is "other" wiring, like electromagnet uncouplers.
I do have an Excel spreadsheet for decoders, giving manufacturer, engine number and all of the CVs I've changed for momentum, start voltage, sound volume and so on. The hard drive gets backed up every couple of nights. Scissors cut paper. Paper covers rock. Rock breaks scissors. Rock also breaks hard drive, but if you wait long enough it will break by itself.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I have a color code, and tag wires with numbers. It's all written down. Components I do have listed in my inventory program, but there aren't that many with DCC. The loco inventory lists the model decoder that is installed in a given loco.
Plus I standardize everywhere - there are few unique items in the wiring and control, and aside from say setting the address, a defective servo controller can be unplugged and another substituted. Given that I generally use the buttons and do not attempt to operate them via DCC, even setting the address is kind of optional. All my motor-only decoders ar TCS. Mostly T1, although if there is a space issue I will use a different model, but the programming is all the same. Going forward, all my sound decoders will be ESU, for the same reason.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
It's another benefit to using pink foam as a layout base. You can easily write on it with a Sharpie on the underside, so you can figure out which wire going through which hole is going to what.
I've got wire routing lists showing wire colours, function, terminal strips and so on in spreadsheets and word processing documents as well as printouts in a binder and the computer gets backed up daily. I'd be lost without those lists and diagrams. And, as some others have mentioned, I write the code or purpose of each termination on the under side of the layout at the terminal strips.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
I have a layer of plywood under my foam and that STILL works. And our old family room at Christmas only layout was just some sheets of plywood that we bolted together, adn all the holes underneath were marked as to what wire to what item went there.
Bottom line, this technique works for pretty much any material you would build a layout from. And is a VERY good idea.
MisterBeasley It's another benefit to using pink foam as a layout base. You can easily write on it with a Sharpie on the underside, so you can figure out which wire going through which hole is going to what.
I have a relatively small 6' x 11' HO layout. It's DCC and I used different color wires for the 3 subdistricts. I documented the wiring of turnouts wiring, for the switch as well as the aux contact frog feeder wires. I pre-wired the Tortoises for the switch activation and power, and used 5-terminal strips at each turnout for the Tortoise/turnout connections for switch, frog and track feeders.
My biggest error was making exceptions to wire color coding when I ran out of wire: 25' spools for feeders and frogs, red/black auto wire for switch power, etc. If you buy 25' spools, you will end up needing 27+ feet of wire. As the initial expense of the layout was pretty high (benchwork, track, DCC, turnout control, some rolling stock, etc) it was silly to hope the various 25' rolls of 22AWG wire would suffice, at only $3/roll or so. I should have been more generous in my initial orders.
I think I can trace whatever I might need to reasonably easily as the layout is small. Nonetheless, I would be better off if I had stuck 100% to the color coding routine.
I do save receipts, so I can readily re-order the materials I need from various suppliers; e.g., DPDT switches, LED and panel holders, wire, etc.
An important part of my wiring was the DCC end setup. I built a shelf with power strip, DCC supply, subdistrict circuit breaker/reverser boards, etc that is a neat and straightforward power distribution area that is neatly laid out and easy to trace.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
I'm pleasantly surprised that this thread reappeared out of the mists of yesteryear, and that the ideas are still considered valid.
Having all of my documentation on hard copy saved my sternpost when my old computer died a few months ago. Managed to salvage most (but not all) to disc, just to discover that my new operating system doesn't work with the old disc-copied data...
As for spelunking under the benchwork, I prefer not to. So I have all of my electricals along the fascia line or no deeper in than the L-girder. Sitting in a chair beats all xxxx out of crawling around on the floor!
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
tomikawaTTI'm pleasantly surprised that this thread reappeared out of the mists of yesteryear...
Chuck,
Weirdly enough, I didn't even notice that. Wasn't digging for it at least. The thread was just there and I responded. Database must've burped or something?
EDIT: OK, now I remember...how did that happen?...I came over here to check what the first post was in the Electronics and DCC forum for someone who asked elsewhere...then walked away from the computer for awhile, came back and unwittingly saw the post and thought I'd weigh in. Interesting discussion, and, no, it didn't taste like a doughnut that old.
HEY Chuck!!
can you change your settings so I can ask some questions in a PM?
Inspired by Addiction
See more on my YouTube Channel
I document as much as I can when it comes to DCC controls,decoders and locomotives. I also have electrical diagrams of my wiring on the layout. Here are a few photos of my 'paperwork'. I keep DCC settings in my loco log book, with a page for each engine. I used Excel for creating the forms and save each loco sheet for future use.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!