DC Walk around throttle wiring

[TomDiehl]

One suggestion I'd offer, since I did something similar at our club, is to choose a connector that will allow you to wire all jacks on the layout for all throttles. We used a homebuilt system, based on a Model Railroader article, and each throttle required 4 wires. We have six cabs, or a total of 24 wires. We used a 25 pin D-Subminiture connector, common to computers so we expect it to be available for some time to come. Cab A is pins 1 thru 4, Cab B is 5 thru 8, etc. Each jack on the layout has 24 of the 25 pins wired to the respective throttle, each handheld unit has only the 4 connections for that one cab, and there's only one handheld for each cab, making it somewhat idiot resistant. No matter which jack you plug in to, you still only control that one cab. If you use individual 4 pin jacks, it would be easy to plug two controllers into the same cab.

For your system, if you choose a controller needing 4 wires, you can do the same thing with a 9 pin D-Subminiture.

[AltoonaRailroader]

 Thanks Randy. I guess I should start shopping for throttles eh?

[rrinker]

 It all depends on WHICH DC walkaround system you get. Most common would be the type that you need to wire the first way, but there are some that work the second way. The second way is usually more expensive, but requires much less wiring.

                               --Randy

[AltoonaRailroader]

 Thanks for the input Seamonster. So if I'm understanding this correctly. I need to take DC power from both of cabs to a three position rotory switch or DPDT to a jack where I can plug in my walk around DC controller? Or will CAB selection be done on the controller itself? I think I've seen that option of some of the ones I've looked at. I guess I really need to sit down and brain storm how I'm going to wire this up. Hmmmmm, I'm hungry for food for thought. LOL

 

Thanks again. ARR

[Seamonster]

The instructions for your base throttle should show where the connections for the walkaround throttles are attached, probably a terminal strip. You just daisy-chain the wiring from there all around your layout to wherever you want the sockets to be. If the throttles take 4 or even 6 wires, you can use telephone wire. It's pretty inexpensive. If your base throttle is more or less in the middle of your layout, then I'd attach two sets of wires to it, going off in opposite directions. As for sockets, people use a wide variety of sockets. Some use telephone jacks. They will take either 4 or 6 wires depending on the type of jack. Of course, the cable to the handheld throttle needs to have a matching telephone connector on its end. Some use DIN (European) plugs and sockets. I helped someone wire a layout once who wanted the most sturdy connectors possible for his walkaround throttle, something that couldn't be broken no matter how clumsy the user was, so we used XLR microphone connectors. Expensive, but sturdy. If your throttles use 3 wires you could use 1/4" stereo jacks and plugs but I'm not sure if the contacts on the plug sliding past the contacts in the jack would upset the throttle when inserting and withdrawing. Whatever you do, do not use electrical plugs and sockets! Don't even think about it! Someone, some time, is going to plug a throttle into an electrical outlet or plug a tool into a socket and turn it on.

[AltoonaRailroader]

 Hello everyone,

     I'm still on the fence about DC or DCC wiring for my future layout and I'll need to make a decision soon as my first section will need to be wired soon. I'm really leaning towards DC Walk around, and I've hit a ton of sites that have them for sale, or show you how to build them, but no on talks about how to wire your layout for them. Can anyone provide me some information on how this is done? What kind of plugs to use? Do I run multiple wires for track power from the power supply to the jacks? How does this work? I don't mind block wiring and I don't think the better half is going to afford me a big enough budget to do DCC but I still want walk around capability. Can you help? 

 

Thank you.