Connecting wires...

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

Have or Do any of you use minurets to make your under track wiring connections?
They're those little plastic caps with the copper thredding in them. Like this...



Seems to me that it would be a lot easier to twist two wires together and screw one of these on than to solder and tape or shrink wrap a connection. Especially under track connections...

Are there signal loss issues with DCC? or simple current loss with DC? Seems my household wiring is connected together using them. If you have experience with them let me know how it performs...

Trevor[:)]

[Adelie]

I've used a ton of those (aka wire nuts, wire connectors, twisters and probably a couple of hundred more names), but never in model railroad wiring. I can't really think of a reason, except that I just instinctively use terminal strips or soldered "running splices" for connecting bus wires and solder connections for feeders. I have a huge jug full of those things (by whatever name anyone wants to use).

I can't think of any potential interference issues that would be any worse than using terminal blocks or soldered and taped connections. I suppose in theory they are less secure than either of the other connections (they can get knocked off or work themselves loose if exposed to movement), but when I use them around the house I generally put electrical tape across the base and around the incoming wires, anyway (yes, I'm conservative on that stuff).

[Anonymous]

I've not come across that type of connector before, but I usually just solder everything electrical on the layout - a reel of solder lasts for years and making individual joints will cost next to nothing. Scotchlocks and other systems begin to eat up the budget if you use a lot of them surely? I appreciate that soldering is a skill but it's worth learning as you can use it for so many tasks, and it's very easy to do. The one set of joints I didn't solder were those between the two modules of my layout - these use standard terminal strips as a safety measure, as with these if a cable gets yanked in transit it should just pull out without taking half the layout wiring with it. Short linking cables with plugs and sockets join the two terminal strips together and allow quick disassembly/reassembly.

Speaking of house electrics, when we moved in we fixed a downright dangerous bodge made by the previous owner who thought that a ballpoint pen top was a perfectly acceptable way of joining wires carrying 230V mains... (there's a proper junction box in its place now!)

[Blind Bruce]

I totally agree with what adlie said and will add that a quantity of them could be unsightly and hard to trace problems. The terminal strips usually used, are easy to trace out and look neat as well.
BB

[selector]

They're called "marrets", and are used extensively in houshold wiring fixtures in N. America. They come in different sizes for different guages of wire.

I wanted the experience, so I soldered all my connections under the table. But I think marrets should work okay if you were to wrap them with electrical tape afterwards. They are not the most positve connector out there. I know 'cuz I've used them for wiring in ceiling fans, and most recently to replace a light fixture in our furnace room. [|(]

[retsignalmtr]

i've got a couple of those wire nuts under my layout temporaraly holding several track feeders together until i add the buss wires. i'm using wireless digitrax dcc with no interference, signal loss or voltage drop problems. there is also a special wire nut that is used to connect bare ground wires together in junction boxes that is green with a hole in the tip for a wire to pass through and be connected to a terminal. i've used them when i didnt have enough room on a barrier strip for all the wires. since they're used in house wiring to pass 15, 20 or 30 amps there is no reason they can't be used on your layout. if you use the right size they will not come loose. mine are in place for about two years now. just tuck them up out of sight and run your trains.

[MisterBeasley]

Wire nuts do NOT work well on a T-connection, such as when connecting a track feeder to a power bus.

They also are designed for connecting wires of the same size. As was mentioned above, they are used extensively in house wiring, but I don't see them in the very small sizes you would need for #22 wire and above.

I'll stick with solder or terminal strips, thank you.