Accu-lite snaps connector for tortoise

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Has anybody ever used these? How well do they hold on?

http://acculites.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=40_99&products_id=566

2

I’ve used something very similar. I got mine several years ago, and they did not have anything special to hold the on. The work pretty well even like that.

My LHS ran out of them and couldn’t get any more. I do think they’re kind of expensive for what they do.

3

Don:

Here is a clickable link:

http://acculites.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=40_99&products_id=566

I think all you needed to do to make your link work is hit the return key after posting the link.

Dave

4

Don and Mr. B,

I’m guessing that the connectors have screw sockets so no soldering is required. Is that correct? The picture isn’t very clear.

Thanks

Dave

5

No, the ones I bought do not have screw sockets. They have solder pins on the bottom.

Sorry, not the best picture.

Yes, they work, but I still end up having to solder under the table unless I want to use very long wires. The wires from the Tortoise to the track bus for powering frogs, for example, need to be soldered to the bus and the Tortoise. Even though I can do the connector on the bench, I still need to go below to complete the wiring.

6

Those aren’t the current Snaps then, the Snaps have screw terminals for the wire as well as the edge card connector.

–Randy

7

Then mine were indeed a different model. I don’t think they were specifically made for the Tortoise, actually. They were just 8-pin edge connectors that happened to fit.

8

Randy is correct. They are indeed screw terminals on one end and edge connector for the tortoise on the other.

I thought it would make wiring easier because soldering and unsoldering can be a pain in the duckass sometimes.

And screw terminals are a ton quicker than soldering.

9

Being able to avoid having liquid solder dripping in my face sounds like a good idea, but I wish they were less expensive. To do 39 Tortoises I’m looking at almost $400 Cdn with the exchange rate, duties and shipping. That is $1.25 Cdn. per contact. I guess I’ll have to manage with gloves and long sleeves.[N]

Dave

10

I pre-wired 12+ inch long “pig-tails” on all of my Tortoises before installing them. I was fortunate to find surplus 8 conductor Belden wire, 18 or 20 ga. I forget, but every Tortoise has the same wire color code. Black & red to 1 & 8, purple always goes to the frog (switch common) and orange and blue to rail A or B depending on throw, then yellow, green, brown are tied off or used for signals.

I could do about ten in an hour at the bench while watching old British war movies.

Recently I began using these push type connectors for the frog wires:

These things are pretty handy, IMHO. In fact the other day I got rail A & B mixed up when wiring the powered frog. No worries, push in the tab, swap a pair of wires, done. They are handy for structure and signal wiring, too. They will grip a 32 ga. wire. Multiple wires I strip, twist, then trim to about 1/4" before sticking into the clip.

I had a thread on them somewhere here about a month ago. {found it}

http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/260802.aspx

The thread linked to above has the Ebay seller where I bought the three pole jobs. About a dime each. Amazon sells them, too.

You can get doubles and triples pretty easy. Model Power markets a twelve-banger if you want one with that many ports. A #4 x 5/8 pan-head phillips sheet metal screw fits the mounting hole with the head “popping” between two of the push clips. Some I have mounted with Velcro®.

11

Hi Ed,

I bought a bunch of the three wire connectors based on your previous recommendations. It will be a while before I can actually put them to use but I like the design and they seem to be pretty sturdy.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Dave

12

I only with they would drill the darn holes in the Toroise in an even row - then you could just fit some screw terminals and solder at the bench. Pretty cheap. Or put molex pins on and crimp a wire harness to plug in to it. Why the holes alternate up and down has always eluded me. Now I just use servos, which are all plug and socket, no soldering anything.

–Randy