Can you "T" bus wires

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

Hi. I have Digitax DCC. In more than one area I need to “T” the bus wires,I.E. Branchline Jct and where a second staging are joins the mainline.

Can I simply splice into the main bus and go down the line?

Thanks!

2

If I understand your question, you are simply extending the main bus wires for the branchline and staging areas. Providing you used heavy enough wire for the main bus and for the extensions this should be fine. Splice onto the bus and add feeders where needed.

3

Simplest answer is Yes, just be sure to use the same gauge of wire to avoid voltage/current drop on the new “branch” of the electrical system.

It is assumed, as Blue Hills mentioned, that you are using the correct Gauge of wire for your Main Buss that is required for your Voltage/Current and length needs.

4

Absolutely! A site you might want to spend some time reading is: http://www.wiringfordcc.com/

Lots of good ideas and some technical stuff that can very helpful. About the only thing I haven’t used that he shows is the Light Bulb trick. I prefer to have the breaker on the booster shut it down to having current continue to run through a short.

5

I’m using 14ga. solid for busses and 20ga. stranded for feeders.

Right now there is about 150 ft. of mainline,around the walls of a 42 by 30 basement ,with 3 penisulas shaped like a giant E.I figure I’ll need a booster when I get the remainder of the benchwork/track in. It’s a little under 1/2 done.

Thanks for your help, you’ve answered my ?'s!

Terry

6

Terry,

If it is not already, you should put your current Booster as close to dead center of the layout as you can to give you equal runs in each direction. If you add a second Booster, you could split your layout into quarters, placing a booster between the 1 and 2, and a second Booster between 3 and 4. This will equalize the current drop between the farthest points of the electrical system.

7

Thanks, Steve. At the moment, it’s sort of at center for the track that’s down. It is temporarily wired to the main bus. I figured as I built the ROW I could find a permanent home for it and then break the layout into 2 districts.

Terry

8

Yes you can T off. In fact you can T off of a T. The important thing is voltage drop. You can find a table in Tony’s tips I think it is, or on his site anyhow.

Jules