Leson learned - - tighten the terminal screws

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

This may seem trivial to you all, but I have to share it.

As I have stated before on this forum, I moved homes last fall, so that meant disassembling my layout and reassembling it in my new digs. Alas, I have finally gotten to the point of getting it operational again, but not without some glitches; most notably with indicator lights. I run on DC, with toggle switches at each block, (ten in all), that select either of the two throttles. The toggles are the on-off-on, double pole-double throw type with solder tabs. The other pole on these switches is connected to LED indicator lights that light up when that respective throttle is operational.

With just a few “corrections” the track power all was up and running after it was all reconnected. It was the light power to my No. 2 block that baffled me; it was not operational at all. I tried everything to test it out to try to find the problem, including resoldering all the connections and replacing the 150 ohm resistor. To add to the peril while using a wire with aligator clips to go directly from the terminal to the light, I unwittingly connected the power, without a resistor, to the ‘A’ position LED and, naturally, I fried it, so I had to replace it too. To avoid this happening again, I soldered a resistor into the aligator clip testing wire.

So, in using this test wire method, I accidentally touched one of the other terminals. Voila! Lights! Each terminal has two screws: the top one to connect the jumper wire within the terminal strip, the bottom one to use for connecting to the LED. I tried yet another terminal position, then another and yet another and they all worked. The question was: what is the matter with the No. 2 terminal position? Well, I looked closer at it and the top jumper connection screw looked a little loose…

It required about a half of a turn to tighten it!

Lights at No. 2 block! Miracle!

Have you ever done such a dumb thing? This has to be at t

2

I’ve done it often enough that my “official” approach is to check the tightness of all the screws when I’m done on a wiring project. I occasionally find one that I “forgot” when I did the work.

Also at the end, I try to step back and look over the work, just to see if anything looks funny.

Something I did not catch awhile ago: I was installing 3 sets of 4 diodes in a pc board. And I put one set in backwards. Uh, oops. I eventually tracked that down after things just weren’t working right.

Ed

3

And now you know why I do that sort of thing with my multimeter set to minimum resistance and used as a continuity meter.

Been there, done that, have the T-shirt.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with lots of threaded termini)

4

Have you ever done such a dumb thing? This has to be at the top of the list for “duh!” Your thoughts.

Yeah,getting married . Hehe.

Just kidding. 21 years with my wife.

Glad you found the problem Tom.

5

How about a ‘‘Duh’’ and a ''Duh, Duh"…getting married twice…LOL

Take Care! [:D]

Frank

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BT, DT

–Randy

7

Gee, I’ve only been married once - for fifty-six years and counting.

And because the wonderful lady I married was present and knew what to do I didn’t stop counting six weeks ago.

I don’t know what I did right back in 1960, but I’m sure glad I did it.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

8

Well, I stuck it out for 21 Years with my ex. I harbor no hard feelings towards her. I will re-marry in April of next year!