I’d like to use 25 core cables to wire from a control panel to the layout proper, however, I don’t know where to get the ports for these cables or know how to wire them at that point. Any suggestions
I have been doing some looking around and realize I need to use D-subminiture connectors but didn’t know if anyone knows of the wiring order or if any dealers had prewired connectors.
Thanks in advance for your help
I don’t know what a core cable is. Are they called by any other name?
I think he means a cable with 25 seperate wires in it, kind of like how phone cable is made up of 4 wires…[%-)]
Hi cpeterson,
From memory the 25 core cable is just a printer cable, i.e. parallel port. If you wish to use the same standard connectors, just use DB25 connectors. They are normally wired pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2, etc. That’s why it is called a parallel cable, i.e. wires are all in parallel.
You could just use a terminal strip on each side, you don’t have to use the standard connectors.
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Nigel
Actually it’s “Parallel” because data is transmitted in parallel (ie both ways at once) - IIRC, a printer cable has 12 each transmit and recieve pins on either end, with the last pin being a ground (ie the cable ends were flipped at some point, i believe end to end, so that pin 1 on one end was 25 on the other).
Thanks so far for the replys.
I’m trying to get my wiring to be much more user friendly and clean this time for my new layout and hoped that i could do something similar to Gavin Miller’s wiring shown here at:
yep, those are just printer cables. If you’re looking for them, I doubt that any big stores (IE staples, best buy, etc) carry them anymore, seeing as USB has kinda taken over - but some of the more specialized stores might carry them.
I know RS is worthless most of the time, but last time I was there (maybe 2 months ago) I seem to remember seeing that they had the male/female ends available.
Are you sure? I’m asking because I thought of something like that at one time, but I don’t have any two points on my layout that are connected by anything close to 25 wires. I even thought of using them for control panels, but there again, the runs just aren’t long enough to justify all the extra work of plugs and jacks. Remember, if you solder a wire to to lug, that’s one solder connection. If you put a plug and jack in the line, that’s 2 more connections. You’re tripling your chances to have a problem, and tripling the difficulty of troubleshooting it, too.
I use 4-conductor phone cable for my turnouts and signals, even though I generally only need 3 wires. It’s the cheapest stuff around.
I would agree that it adds to complexity, as each plug is a total of three connections to go bad, and I’m bad enough with ONE connection to mess up… [:-^]
Best way to figure out how to wire them would be to cut off the PRINTER end (the one that doesn’t have 25 pins in a D-shaped enclosure), and then use the continuity test function on a multimeter to trace which of the wires goes to which pin.
If these are standard communication cables, I suspect the wires are a very small gauge. I would be highly suspect of the current carrying capacity of them. I had a friend who wired his entire layout with surplus ‘phone wire’ - He had non-stop problems.
Maybe this will work for a small N scale pike, but the voltage loss may be too much…
Jim
… I didnt even think of that…
I believe that the wires in most computer applications (unless you buy those retractable cables) are either 24 or 26AWG… might even be as small as 28AWG in some cables.
If you live near a used computer store or a computer repair place I’m sure you could get them for next to nothing.
Are we talking about 25 pair wire? If so, it will between 22 to 24 awg.
I’m going to look at a somewhat different aspect of using printer cables for layout circuitry.
What, exactly, are you planning to control? If it’s tortoise switch machines, LEDs and can motors in HO or N scale, the rather small wires should be adequate. If, in contrast, you want to power rocksmasher twin-coil switch machines, strings of large incandescent lamps or heavy locomotives with two open-frame motors, all bets are off.
Mister Beasley, if you were into MZL control you’d find LOTS of places where there might be 25 or more connections between panels - specifically between the main (CTC) panel and the zone (individual station) panels. [MZL makes analog DC user friendly at the expense of complex interconnections to establish routes, and to control turnouts and signals (and feed back point positions and signal indications) from remote locations.]
As for my actual wiring practices, I use #22 (or larger) individual wires, connected (and cabled) from terminal block to terminal block. The terminal blocks are the threaded post, washers and nuts type, homemade from pieces of wood and Ace Hardware machine screws, nuts and washers. Needless to say, EVERYTHING is labeled and fully documented.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I don’t think so. I’m not entirely sure if printer cable is 50 wires/25 conductor or just 25 wires total…
Never had to tear one apart…
Dan,
I’m pretty sure he’s talking about parallel port cable - the flat computer connecting cable that terminates in a D-shaped connector.
No resemblance between that and 25-pair communications cable. Half the total conductors, and much finer wire (which was the reason for my earlier comment,)
FWIW, most of my wiring is being done (and has been done for the last 40 years) with salvaged wire from pre-1960 25-pair cable. I love it!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I’m gonna have to dig up a Printer/Parallel cable now to get the exact guage… but, like I said before I believe it to be somewhere in the range of 22-26 AWG… which probably depends on how “good” the cable was in the first place - I’ve noticed that the more expensive ones are usually thicker than the cheap ones…
Not exactly. While it’s true that the parallel cables are bi-directional, the reason they are called parallel is that all the bits that make up a single byte travel in parallel down the wires. One entire byte arrives at once. The opposite of parallel was a serial cable, where the bits followed each other.
Here’s more: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/parallel-port1.htm
yeah… those small details always get me…
at least this term is over (well, today at 5PM EST), so my brain can rest…