These are WAGO brand Wire Lever Nuts part no. 222-415. This part no. is good for wire gauges 28 - 12 AWG (stranded and solid) and 600 V / 20 A maximum.
They can be had at the local big box hardware stores for about the same price as Amazon @ $22 for 40 pcs. Its becoming a favortie amoung electrician doing house wiring ( from what I have read ).
Whats nice about these is you do not cut into your bus wire sheathing like you do with the suitcase type connectors. Also, just a simple flip of the lever for the coresponding wire and it is easily removed. Once lever is locked down, they hold the wire firmly.
Below shows the bus wire coming in one side and out the other with 2 feeders in the middle:
Below shows how I daisy chained them to get 16 feeders ( 8 of each polarity ), Pic was before I added the bus wires:
Okay, I guess, if you don't want or need the ability to positively identify a wire and have that kind of money to use. My screw, washer and nut stud terminals on home-fabricated terminal blocks cost about two cents per connection, They also create a much neater and more professional look.
Part of that is my USAF flight line background speaking. Flying (through the air) junctions and combat aircraft electricals don't mix.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with bulletproof electricals)
Expensive and lots of mechanical things to go wrong. No thanks. Strip and solder, works forever, costs nothing.
My company uses them in manufacturing, they are a great lasting, well designed product.
A second opinion from someone who actually has experience with them.
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."-Albert Einstein
http://gearedsteam.blogspot.com/
As a life long member of the electrical trade, for some 40 years now, connectors of this type have some value in very specific applications.
BUT , they will never replace the "wirenut" for basic branch circuit building wiring, and will never replace some form of fixed terminal strip for control wiring.
Since I don't use DCC, I have little use for the "buss wire" application and have to agree with Chuck, I have never cared for that sort of "free dangling" wiring.
Not necessarily my neatest work, I would consider this picture the bare minimum requirement for wiring neatness:
But similar to Chuck, I have a backgorund in industrial control wiring.... As for suitcase connectors - NEVER in my world. Sheldon
But similar to Chuck, I have a backgorund in industrial control wiring....
As for suitcase connectors - NEVER in my world.
Sheldon
Another problem with these and suitcase connectors is that you can't put a meter on the connection.
On my module, I started with old school barrier strips:
along with non-insulated crimp on lugs:
I use the non-insulated because I believe they give a better crimp. And I use the official crimping tool.
But lately I've been trying these:
You don't have to use crimp-ons, and it's easy to disconnect wires. Although the ends do get squished, so you can't do it many times (as opposed to the crimp-ons). Also, with this style, you can easily cut them to length. I buy the "twelvesess" and cut them down as necessary. Unlike the old style barrier strips, these don't have jumpers available so that you can gang a connection. I just use a short piece of wire, but it ain't elegant.
But with both styles, you have access for testing.
Soldering works quite nicely until you need to disassemble the connection. And wire nuts work nicely, except they tend to chew up the wire.
Ed
Yeah, people do have opinions, even if they've never had one in hand before. I haven't, but I can definitely see uses for them, especially since they're reusuable. For instance, I like to move things around sometimes before I find an arrangement of track I like or because reconfiguiring something makes for better ops. Installing these to start with could get things operational, then you can adjust as needed. Once finalized, you could probably go for more permanent connections easily and systematically. For me, that would most likely mean wire nuts.
I think they'd be especially handy on modules for me. I have some plans I'll get to someday and this would work well for me to do that. Leave things long on the feeders. Then as you finalize, you tidy and tigheten things to avoid that "droopy" look Sheldon notes is annoying.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
mlehman Yeah, people do have opinions, even if they've never had one in hand before. I haven't, but I can definitely see uses for them, especially since they're reusuable. For instance, I like to move things around sometimes before I find an arrangement of track I like or because reconfiguiring something makes for better ops. Installing these to start with could get things operational, then you can adjust as needed. Once finalized, you could probably go for more permanent connections easily and systematically. For me, that would most likely mean wire nuts. I think they'd be especially handy on modules for me. I have some plans I'll get to someday and this would work well for me to do that. Leave things long on the feeders. Then as you finalize, you tidy and tigheten things to avoid that "droopy" look Sheldon notes is annoying.
Everybody has their own "style' of working, but coming from an architecture, engineering and construction background, I prefer to plan things and then only do them once.
"Temporary" is in my view a last resort when necessary, and waste of time and resources other wise - planning minimizes changes and temporary - at least in my world.
Those look like nice little connectors, and like I said there are situations for which they are well suited, including the application as shown.
My point, and if I may speak for Chuck as well, is that overall there are good reasons to approach electrical wiring from a more disciplined approach - trouble shooting - and possible future changes - being two very good ones, not to mention durablity and long term reliability.
Walk into any factory in the world, open up the control panel that runs whatever kind of machines they have, you will not find a rats nest of wires run willy nilly, you will find neat, bundled, labled, secure wiring - why would we want less for our model empires?
Soldered connections, and terminal strips with crimp connection (which I then solder, even though I use a proper crimp too for them). All run at least as neatly as Sheldon's picture, though I try to keep it even more orderly. Labels everywhere.
Even if I would use those lever blocks, they would be mounted to a swing-down panel in neat rows, not just left dangling.
I did do some industrial control work, but more of my work time has been spent with servers and network systems, and if there's one thing I can;t stand, it's a rack full of servers with network, power, and KVM cables coming out all over the place. It's just asking to take down half of someone's network all because you need to slide one server out for maintenance. Racks have channels and most rack mount equipment has cable management arms to keep all that stuff nice and neatly bundled and each server's wires away from the others. Neatness does count, even for model railroads. You may think you remember where everything goes - today, two days after you hooked it up. But what about 2 years from now? I actually have a pretty good memory, and I may indeed remember it all in the future - but I'd also rather just have it all labeled and recorded <now where did I put the wiring notebook...> so I can instantly see both ends of a suspect circuit, rather then crawl around tugging wires to trace the line from source to destination. It takes just an extra minute to record the information as you add connections - it can save HOURS in the future when a problem crops up.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Jim
I have seen these before and I thought they were interesting, but I have to agree with the others who question their ease of organization. I don't see any mounting tabs. Is there a way to mount them neatly in a row on a board?
I also question the set up where you have multiple leads coming from one location. I can see that working for accessory power but if those are your main buses how long does that make the track feeders?
Also the fact that house builders are using them isn't really a strong recommendation IMHO. Those guys choose the cheapest and fastest method, not necessarily the best. Remember when the housing industry was all perked up over aluminum wiring? I had that crap in a previous house and I had more than one outlet explode as a result of wire fatigue.
Sorry, I'm not trying to offend, but I'm not convinced they are an improvement over other methods.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I also use the European Style barrier strips of twelve. I cut them down into two's to blocks for the feeder wires from tracks on my DC layout. Very easy to use and test when installed. Will accept a 12ga. wire.
Take Care!
Frank
My decision to use manually controlled turnouts and DCC continues to justify itself. Cable staples make an adequate wiring trough for the long runs.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
I've never been a fan of the rat's nest style of wiring. I use barrier strips on swing down boards and I label everything at both ends.
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Dave:
That's inspiring! That's what I hope to achieve will achieve when I finally get around to building my layout.
Right now my biggest wiring challenge is trying to keep all the decoder wires in some sort of order. I'm getting better but i'm still 'not there' yet.
Thank you.
The boards are hinged at the top and swing up out of sight under the layout.
My around the room layout is constructed in 8 foot sections and each section has one of those boards.
RR_Mel I can see the the wire lever type for repairs and automotive use, my preference for my control panel is the brass bus bar type and the Euro screw type. I recently found a good source for terminals, LED-Switch.com They have good pricing on these terminals, the 12 position brass bus bar above is $1.50. The 6 amp 12 position Euro above is $1.10. The brass bus bars workout very good for multiple wires. I have all my 8½ volt rural structure lighting going to a pair of brass bus bars (40 pairs), also all of my 1.4 volt vehicle lights go to a pair of them too (70 pairs). Mel
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Back view of my control panel, all the switches are labeled with a simple numbering system to match my schematic drawing. "Bxx" for block, "Txx" for turnouts and "LEDxx" for the LEDs.
Just no way you can avoid a little ''rat's nest'' wiring on a DC control panel with block control. Using ribbon wire is a great way to keep wires neat.....but there is just no way to do that with DPDT toggles all over the panel. That is one advantage to DCC, that I will agree with.
Maybe one day I will take a closer pic' of inside and it will show everything is labled, in & out.
zstripe Just no way you can avoid a little ''rat's nest'' wiring on a DC control panel with block control. Using ribbon wire is a great way to keep wires neat.....but there is just no way to do that with DPDT toggles all over the panel. That is one advantage to DCC, that I will agree with. Maybe one day I will take a closer pic' of inside and it will show everything is labled, in & out. Take Care! Frank
Having had a straight DC cab-control layout in my youth, yeah, wireless DCC makes for a LOT simpler wiring. My main power bus runs in cable staples under the main line. For yards, sidings, and switch ladders I run crosswise buses off the main bus and attach to that.I'm glad I had one DCC layout for practice, my yard ladders need to be neater. One rule I made is that EVERY piece of rail had to be soldered to a wire connected to a feeder. I soldered my flextrack into six foot sections and each section had a feeder. Each turnout also had SIX feeders; stock rails, closure rails, and yes, points. I found 22 gage super flexible wire and put a feeder on every turnout point. ("DCC friendly" turnouts.)It was a lot of work, but you know what? I never had a single train stall.
ATLANTIC CENTRALMy point, and if I may speak for Chuck as well, is that overall there are good reasons to approach electrical wiring from a more disciplined approach - trouble shooting - and possible future changes - being two very good ones, not to mention durablity and long term reliability. Walk into any factory in the world,
Sheldon,
I really wouldn't argue against that as a good general plan. Certainly it builds confidence for people who aren't comfortable with wiring to learn the ropes and make it easy to troubleshoot. I certainly try to avoid the rat's nest look, but in some places it kinda depend on how big a rat you're talking about...
I try to be neat, but kind of gave up on the terminal strip and labeling thing pretty quick. Besides my layout not being a factory...Why?
1. It's a lot of work keeping things organized. I'm not saying it's NOT a good investment, just one you have to feel is important enough to devote the extra time it takes to be neat.
2. I have a alternate system that depends on how the wire is configured and the gauge it is, use of systematic practices, and keeping wire so it's visible if you do have to trouble shoot.
3. Documentation is good, but also a lot of work. I can run down most issues visuualy in the time it takes to get the book out.
4. Being neat and organized has real benefits if multiple people work on a system. Here it's just me. If I run into something I don't immediate recognize, if I think about how I would have done what, it usually comes to me. I will admit that age is starting to make that harder, but the wiring is pretty darn good at this point.
5. I troubleshoot visually, maybe even learn mostly visually, so can sort through a group of wires and wire nuts quickly. I typically know pretty much where to look to start in case a problem occurs, but would have to really think about something with things all lined up neatly and labeled. To me, that says "learn the system" before you do anything. With my method, I guess the focus is "learn the fault."
ATLANTIC CENTRAL"Temporary" is in my view a last resort when necessary, and waste of time and resources other wise - planning minimizes changes and temporary - at least in my world.
I used to be a lot more like that. On the other hand, I built a two-story shop just inside my head that, except for a couple of calculations I jotted down, turned out pretty darn good as I built it in 3D. I had a rough track plan to start with, but found it easier to plan once I had things at least roughly arranged in the space. With more recent projects, I tend to be very specific about not being too specific, because I can work better in 3D in terms of how things come out. Usually I do plan most of the major elements, but exact location can easily be rearranged. This si also the way my wiring has gone and it works for me. I suspect this is one area where one's comfort level and personal preferences can result in pretty much the same outcomeds, but take very different paths to get there.
7j43kAnother problem with these and suitcase connectors is that you can't put a meter on the connection.
Look at the OP's third picture, you can easily use a voltmeter to check voltage.
Men are funny, you will always get a strong opinion on wiring, the best tools, mufflers, lawn mowers, V-8's and beer.
Cheers
Geared Steam 7j43k Another problem with these and suitcase connectors is that you can't put a meter on the connection. Look at the OP's third picture, you can easily use a voltmeter to check voltage. Men are funny, you will always get a strong opinion on wiring, the best tools, mufflers, lawn mowers, V-8's and beer. Cheers
7j43k Another problem with these and suitcase connectors is that you can't put a meter on the connection.
If you haven't used all the connections, sure, you can always stick a probe in an empty connection. But there appear to be no openings for a probe tip elsewhere, so if all the spots are used up, you have to disconnect something to make a test.
Since I retired I no longer issue orders. I now offer advise. The nice thing about advise is you can follow it or disregard it. I am not the slightest bit offended if you do the latter.
tomikawaTT Okay, I guess, if you don't want or need the ability to positively identify a wire and have that kind of money to use. My screw, washer and nut stud terminals on home-fabricated terminal blocks cost about two cents per connection, They also create a much neater and more professional look. Part of that is my USAF flight line background speaking. Flying (through the air) junctions and combat aircraft electricals don't mix. Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with bulletproof electricals)
Being an army type, I have limited exposure to the aircraft industry that gave us high reliability soldering and other nifty safety and efficiency measures. I recall seeing aircraft in photos that are getting third line servicing, essentially a gut and rebuild [think using solvent on old DC-9 aircrafts control cables to rid the cables of nicotine in times of old]. The wires were always bundled, but I didn't linger, or look pointedly, to see if there were labels attached to the bundles. Surely they were there...someplace(s)...? Many bundles of wires...wires upon wires...and then more wires.
I could see a complicated layout with multiple boosters or power packs, or blocks, needing scads of wires and the appropriate groupings and labels. I think the alternative vision/assumption (perhaps a bit naively) was for DCC. At least that was the appeal for me. I think I would have left the hobby if I had to perform the feats of calculus that many of you have demonstrated.
Anyhoo, it would be interesting if we had a matrix that listed all the various types of connectors, as well as their historical qualities, advantages, disadvantages, and problems.
What I can see from the third picture is that I can stick a probe up the little holes. I don't see that, if I do that, I will be checking the voltage on the wire that is inserted in the other hole.
I PROBABLY am, but I don't KNOW that.
If I put a probe on a barrier strip, I'll bet my life it's checking the voltage of a properly (we all did that, right?) connected wire. That will likely happen on Wednesday, at 240 Volts. When I go to work.
I am perhaps a little conservative about electrical work. But I'm still alive.
I have no opinions, at this time, on mufflers or lawn mowers. But I'm pretty sure I could develop them if requested. V-8's are good, because life is good. And I think good gin is better than good beer. Unless it's incredibly hot. And even then....
7j43k because life is good. And I think good gin is better than good beer. Unless it's incredibly hot. And even then....
Agreed, water wasted on beer could have been used make more gin (or rum).
Sorry Ed, I mean't to "reply to all" , I wasnt necessarily singling out your post.
To all, Wegos are simply another method to connect wires, in my experiences, hobby or professional, they have never failed me. Soldering and terminal strips are a proven, age old method. The OP is simply showing a different method to those that may be unfamiliar, no one is questioning the other methods.
If one has concerns about checking voltage, you can simply lift the lever and disconnect the Wego, once you're done, you can reuse it.
Yes I have worked with high and low voltage for 31 + years, its like a gun, you never take it for granted.
But what do I know, I'm just a hick with a soldering gun and a screwdriver?