As a former network engineer, I appreciate this so much! My grandfather's setup was DC, so 20 years later I am now planning a layout. Having you explaining the similarities of DCC power and signal, to a standard PoE, has really made this a breeze! Thank you!
Of all the videos on Model skills especially DCC yours are the best! I'm just restarting the hobby after 40 years absent. I still have much of my old block wired and DC engines so your videos are excellent advice. Glad I dragged all my old rolling stock and structures around thru my travels and now get to enjoy our hobby again with DCC.
I've never been an advocate for the suitcase connectors for a couple of reasons. #1 susceptible to moisture and corrosion. Especially on our portable modules. #2 is the size of the connection. Your putting a lot of current through only a knife edge connection. I personally would want a more substantial connection. Nothing worse than setting up for a train show and having to find a loss of power. Most times it has been a suitcase connector. Open the cover and see the green.
Well, I think that the engineers at 3M figured out just how much current these little buggers can take and designed them accordingly. As fir the moisture issue, the basic concept of the insulation displacement connector was for use in telecommunications and in automotive settings especially for interior wiring such as the radio installations, etc. While these situations are not exactly hermetically sealed they don’t get exposed to a lot of water and hopefully your modules are not as well!
Now, get this straight, Puckett; you are one of the best things that ever happened to model railroading. You make things clear. And my boss likes things clear, see? Seriously, thanks, Larry. Please ignore my "gangster genre" if it offends you. Just funnin' with you a mite........ Someday I hope you will explain the mysterious CV29 - that everyone speaks of - but never fully explains. It's sort of like, "well, it's out there, and we all have to tithe to it, but we don't completely understand it either - at least not enough to explain it fully". I have read so much that I am intimidated by it. Maybe I need a flow-chart, or a diagram??? I appreciate you very much. You are an asset to model railroading.
A really useful video. I like the idea of using the zip wire, or as it’s sometimes called speaker wire. The plus and minus are clearly indicated and I’ve used it a lot for stereo speakers. Do things such as the suitcase connectors, toggle switches, or the small gauge feeder wires add a significant resistance to the overall DCC signal?
No, I’ve been using these connectors for over 20 years without problems and switches have been used for decades longer. You need to be careful on large modular layouts where some connectors between modules can add up to significant voltage loss. Small gage feeders can be problematic but not if kept short. I use 20ga feeders but keep them about 8” long. However at my old club where telephone hookup wire was used and runs were sometimes several feet, you could watch locos slow down and speed up due to the variable resistances of the feeder wires.
I cannot think of any electrical issues, but from a practical viewpoint larger wires are relatively more difficult to manipulate, solder, connect, and work with in general than one of smaller size. So it really is best to use the correct size for the job at hand from the outset. However, a size variance of small proportions isn’t likely to be an issue in that respect either. So for example using 12ga wire instead of 14ga would not be overkill but going to 10ga or 8ga would, it also would be a very expensive option-copper isn’t cheap!
In wiring a wire that is carrying an electrical current is considered to be “hot”. This is commonly used with AC wiring to refer to the black or in some cases red wire as hot while the white wire is the neutral wire.
Hi Larry. Thanks for another helpful video. My HO layout is a 15m loop, originally wired for DC with many isolating sections. The power runs from around the loop in both directions from the controllers. The sections furthest from the controllers are not connected. I am considering rewiring the mainline with a pair of bus wires similar to your zip wire and just have the four yards around the loop connected through the existing panels ( to allow sidings with locos not in use to be switched off) should I connect the new mainline bus into one continuous loop. Regards Peter.
Short story-don’t wire as continuous loops. Now the long story-every time this question has come up the EE guys always say never connect a loop back on itself, always use a linear bus. Most say it gets down to the difference in the lengths to where the loops are joined, which of course is variable within the same loop, and in turn means where the signals meet they will be different. Although this might seem a trivial matter you have to also consider how fast these signals are transmitted on a pair of wires. So I always recommend that loops be broken to create two independent bus configuration.
@@TheDCCGuy Thanks Larry, I’ll just upgrade the wires then but leave them disconnected. (However they must get connected for a second every time a loco completes a loop.) cheers Peter.
@@TheDCCGuySo as the track is a continuous loop, would you suggest inserting insulators at the end of each bus? So that the track and bus break at the same point.
There is a formula that we electricians use for distance and voltage drops. I’m not sure what the specs would be be for lower voltage like this but I will think anything like this you would run into drops anything past 10-12 ft unless you us 14 or 12g wiring throughout
extension and branching with OFC skrl type cable Audtek: What type of electrical connector? For a T branch, do you make a cut in the outer sheath then insert a 3M T-top for each wire?
My current train layout is a DC system, I am in the processing of upgrading it so it can work with both DC and DCC systems. I do not have any DCC controls at this time, but if I set up the layout correctly, I can add it in easily. One of the topics I have been reading about is TVS Protection (1.5KE36CALFCT-ND) and the correct placement. Should this be used and were would you put it? I currently have a Lionel ZW transformer and would love to keep using it. Also, I just picked up your books "DCC Projects & Applications, Vol. 4" and "Wiring your model railroad". At a quick glance, you do not talk about TVS protection in either book unless I missed it.
Mixing DC and DCC is not a good idea except on the most basic of layouts. There are so many accessories now for DCC that are not compatible with DC that you will not be able to use if you want to mix them so you’re hobbling yourself. Now if you just want a simple loop or small switching layout you can get by and I did a video a few months ago on the subject so feel free to scroll through my listings on my channel hime page. As for TVS, I am finding them on various DCC accessories such as circuit breakers, autoreversers, etc. Some experimenters have suggested also placing them on the motor leads from the decoder. Others say on the inputs to the decoder. I have not had time to experiment myself and from what I have seen from others the jury is still out. Plus I have never cooked a decoders with voltage spikes, I prefer to make sure my wiring is as bullet proof as possible and avoid them in the first place.
Question relating back to decoder install: what power soldering iron are you using, and what solder. It seems that you use no flux, so I’m guessing that the secret is in the solder?
Can I buy your book on electrical connections from you in electronic form as an ebook because on Amazon I will have to wait more than 1 month before the shipment reaches me?
I started building a on30 layout, a simple figure 8 up and over with 4 switchs for a train yard. I used the peco switchs and track plus a little ddc transformer. So my bachmann 0-6-0 sounds and runs great on the figure 8, but as soon as I throw a switch, the transformer freaks out! I think the switchs are the problem, I've nailed all the tracks down and soldered all the rail connections. I'm at a loss and very disappointed, I was told by many that dcc was the best way to go.
