I recently finished installing the signals on my layout, which substantially finishes the electrical work. I tried to keep the wires organized, but it did not turn out that way.
I went from this:
To this:
As an aside, I was able to utilize some picture hanging wire to get my TMCC base off the floor:
Well, how bad is this? I would love to see the underside of everybody’s layout.
Regards,
John
I’ve seen worse. All you really need to do is get those wires that leave the wiring board up and secured to the bottom of the layout instead of laying on the floor. Clean to me means that you aren’t tripping on them when you craw under the layout, and that you can trace them out relatively easy when you have a problem. You aren’t far off.
Wes
John,
Compared to my “under the table” your’s looks neat enough to hold a candlelight dinner under there.
I’ll try to take a pic of mine and post it, but it won’t be for the faint hearted. Looks like a grenade blew up a 55 gallon barrel of cooked spaghetti.
Regards,
Bill
Hello Wes:
Thanks for your feedback. The reason you see those two groups of wires on the floor is that they are connected to my “control panel:”
My control panel is on wheels so that it can be slid under the layout when not in use. As a result, they need to keep their “slack” so that the control panel table can be moved.
Regards,
John
Thats a good reason to keep the slack then. Maybe put all of the wires into the splitloom, and then attach the splitloom to the table. It will stay snag free that way.
Wes
(Wall that blocks water) the government and it’s blocking of pertinent images. I’ll have to look at this at home. =P
John… that is one cute little panel there. =)
Yes, I would agree … things on the floor are bad. But all those units are part of TMCC (sp?)? I’ve never seen one … I’m used to post war. Only thing I’ll have besides a home made panel is the transformer. I’ll post pics soon as I take some recent ones. My regular camera was dropped at (not in) the Grand Canyon by a dude who helped us out by taking a shot then using all his thumbs to hand it back to me. It’s in the mail back to Casio to get the lens fixed so it will retract again. In the meantime I’ll have to drag out my old camera…
Here is my control panel. I have all (most) the wires labeled!
]
Just kidding!
Hello Clickmatch:
Actually, only the unit on the back side is for TMCC. The two units in the midst of the nest of wires are for MTH’s DCS. The one on the left is the TIU, which sends the commands to the engines. The other is the AIU, which allows the user to control switches, lights, operating tracks, etc. from the DCS remote.
Regards,
John
Coolness. Probably a lot more involved than I’ll ever go, but I have to admit I’m already a little switch crazy.
Got my wiring page up:
http://www.clickmatch.com/trains/p5_wiring.asp
This is the layout so far…
Very nice. I really like your control panel. Did you design it yourself? I also like the design of your website. I will be watching for updates.
Thanks for sharing.
John
Thanks, yes I created it in illustrator, printed out on glossy paper and glued it to a project cover, from one of those radio shack project box kits.
That is a great analogy Bill. I resemble that remark! I am a mechanical engineer by trade and my benchwork can withstand hurricane force winds. However my wiring is a bunch of spaghetti but they are all laid out in a straight line. The wires are not color coded because a guy at work gave me a spool of black wire. Each circuit is easy enough to trace if you want to spend the time. Troubleshooting problems and working on the layout are just as rewarding as running the trains.
Crabby44,
You’re way ahead of me if your wires are in a straight line. My wires started straight when they left the starting point (outlying areas of the table), but something happened on the way to the terminal blocks, the TIU, AIUs, and transformers. Maybe it was something I ate.
While the appearance is one of mass confusion, I did take the initiative to label key wires, and have tried to maintain a wire color consistancy. Finding multi-conductor wire has not been easy for me.
I want to post a picture of my mess, but have not figured out how to do it. Apparently, doing a copy and paste routine does not work.
Perhaps someone will read this who can explain how to post a web graphic to this web graphic inhibited person.
Regards,
Bill
Hello Bill:
You need to upload your picture onto the Web in order to post it on the forum. I use Photobucket (www.photobucket.com) to upload my pictures. From there you just click on “img code” and that copies the location of the picture into your clipboard. You can then paste that information into your post.
Regards,
John