Perhaps I have misread this, but many of the replies seem to indicate that you have swapped the polarity of the bus on half the layout. I read it to be that you just used the wrong color feeders on half the layout. Which is it?
I’m sure Bearman and many others of you do this/have done this, but …
I tend to designate some sort of standard such as “red wire to inner rail, white wire to outer rail”. Or use designations like “right/left”, “north/south”, “east/west”. And yes, if I cross my wires, it’ll bug me until I’m motivated enough to fix it. That said, if I happen to run out of red wire, orange or pink is close enough. I might use yellow or grey in place of white. I use terminal strips under the layout, so I can swap out the colors easily enough when it bugs me enough.
Brad
I am not sure what I did. I assumed that I swapped the polarity which is why I started this thread in the first place. To repeat, electricity is not one of my strong points.
Wire is cheap. And I have plenty of it. I designated the standard based on the layout plan as I mentioned, and somehow it appears that I screwed up.
You’re not the first to do this (now, how does he know that?) and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Fix it, laugh about it, and share your knowledge with the next guy. Really, that’s a lot of what the community of model railroaders, or any hobbyists, is all about, right? We learn from our own mistakes, and from the mistakes of others. Believe it or not, your blunder has added to the common “around the campfire” knowledge of the civilization of modelers. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for really, really wanting to do it right.
When I first responded to this thread, I assumed that you simply reversed your colored coded wiring scheme but did not reverse the polarities.
So, as Phoebe Vet asks, which is it?
And, your answer is that you don’t know!
bearman, it is not so much an issue of hating electricity. Even if you are totally electrically illiterate, you have to be able to determine what you did and what you should do. As someone else mentioned, there has to be a wiring convention that you follow; for example, outer rail-color A, inner rail color B.
If you simply reversed the color coding from one section to the other, with gaps separating the sections, no shorts will occur. But, if the inadvertent wire swapping reversed polarities within or between gapped sections, you will immediately experience a short circuit when the power is turned on.
So, to repeat, which is it?
Rich
Rich, what I did is, I think, reverse the polarity between the two gapped sections. If you refer to the original scematic. One half of the layout has red-to-red, and white-to-black which is the coding I am using. The other half has red-to-black, and white-to-red. I think that I did reverse the polarity. On the second half, the only thing I have done is drop 6 feeder pairs. I have not installed any part of the bus or any terminal strips. After reading all the advice on this thread, and laughing about the situation per Mr. Beasley’s remark, I have decided to redo the section where I dropped the 6 feeder pairs, because the hassle will be reduced big time rather than fooling with the other part of the layout where I have dropped a lot more feeders, installed part of the bus, and wired some of the feeders to the bus. Even if I reversed the color coding from one section to the other and did not develop a short, it will probably bug me anyways.
The LION uses feeder wires about 18" long. He can sit in a chair in the isle and play with his wires. He can connect it here, or there. He can change anything he likes. Once the Tortoise machines are connected to the crossovers he will route the power through them to remove power from tracks that are in conflict with the assigned lineup.
Lots of things you can do, if your wires are not too short.
The LION is building a model of the New York City Subway. Subway trains do not go backwards. LION connects the left hand rail (in the direction of movement) to GROUND. LION connects the right hand rail (in the direction of movement) to the power bus (10.5 v DC Regulated at 15A).
ROAR
bearman,
The more this thread unfolds, the more I see the wisdom of re-doing the feeders. Otherwise, you will be forever tormented.
One thing that I would strongly suggest, though, is to connect your feeders to your bus wires on an as you go basis. That way, you can detect, isolate, and correct your wiring problems quickly.
Rich
Rich, I generally lay about 6 to 12 feet of track and then do the bus and the feeders, and I use a buzzer when I connect the feeders. For some reason, I laid a little more than usual on this section and noticed the possible problem when I went to start the wiring. Then I had two reactions, after the panic reaction the next thing to do is go to this forum, admit to a possible error and wait for the others to help out. Hasn’t failed me yet. In fact I will be posting for advice on another issue pretty soon.
Stay wired, my friend ! [B]
And Happy Holidays to you as well!
'Tis the season!
I wanna see you electrically literate by New Year’s Eve. [I]
Dream on. I think I have mentioned this before, but I have a degree in civil engineering. Was a pretty good student but not cum laude material. The only course that I eeked, and I mean eeked, by on was the Introduction to Electrical Engineering for non-EE majors. Was tempted to burn the text book after I finished the course.
Bear,
you are bragging a lot about a degree. At the very same time you show us a nice drawing with 2 colours, red and green. The only problem you faced was connecting the two green wires to one “terminal” and the two red wires to the other “terminal”. Yes two, only two.
Anyone can do that wrong, nice, great story for the campfire, though do we need 3 pages of reading to clear that up?
If you call this electrical engineering and feel the need to convince us you are a professional, something is wrong.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Paul
Paul, you have entirely misunderstood his posts. He is “admitting’, not 'bragging”, that despite his degree, he does not do well with electricity. He even goes so far as to further disclose that his qualification in electricity is a weak one in his degree of Civil Engineering because he had so much trouble in it. In fact, we call that ‘self-deprecation’ in English.
Bragging was the furthest intent from him in his row of intents when he posted that last post. It was more of an explanation for how frustrated he is that he made what he now knows to be a fundamental, if simple, and hugely common, error.
Crandell
Yep, I agree wholeheartedly with you, Crandell.
In fact, I think that it is a pretty worthwhile thread, and a lot to be learned if you are not careful with your wiring.
Also, the thread demonstrates that there are a lot of options along the way when this type of situation arises.
Rich
If you want to know if you have reversed the bus, just put an ohm meter across the track anywhere. (one lead on each rail) It should show infinite resistance. If it shows a low number, the bus has been reversed. If the two sections are totally isolated from each other, then put the meter between the same rail in both sections. It should show a very low resistance number. If it doesn’t, try the opposite rail. If you don’t have a meter you can get one at Radio Shack for about $20.
Just leave them and paint or color code tape the drops to the bus. The important thing is the “buss” color. Once under the layout you will know which is which.