Understand it and USE it. This is the wire that connects ALL your boosters and command station via the GROUND CONNECTION. It should be the same size as your bus wire. Without this reference ground you get some realy BAD results along the loconet.
DO NOT HOOK this ground to any EARTH CONNECTION, pipe, our house ground. It is NOT a GROUND it is a reference for the signal.
[%-)] Er? Understand what?
Your post is very succinct… but also enigmatic. maybe the cognosenti understand it?
May be this will help ---- the negative battery post in a car is considered ground, but it deffinitely is not ‘Earth Ground’ — it is reference ground.
Earth Ground is what the power company uses to ground all power.
John
Thank you John, have been around this so long I forget.
As John stated the difference of the 2 grounds.
What I am talking about is the GROUND terminal on a DB150 Digitrax or the DCS100. This GROUND connection must be connected to all other GROUND connections on the LOCONET system. This is the REFERENCE for the SIGNAL that is carried on the LOCONET CABLE in #24 AWG wire which is to small for the amount of information (packets) that can be out on the LOCONET. The REFERENCE ground will help you keep a CLEAN signal on the LOCONET.
The OTHER ground EARTH, is the prong on your extension cord, not the blades but the prong. This is what GROUNDS you to the EARTH so that when you grab it you do not get shocked. IF you CONFUSE these and refer to them BOTH as GROUND you can have very BAD results if you are having someone help you wire. The GROUND is a loop that goes to an IRON pipe or a GROUNDING ROD. REFERENCE GROUND DOES NOT make a loop and DOES NOT hook to any IRON PIPE or GROUNDING ROD.
Sorry for the lack of clarity in the 1st post.
I think your’e quite mistaken Dave: The cognosenti I’m quite sure are a race associated with the Ferengi whos ships now orbit our planet earth.
But do the Ferengi understand it???
How about using English English and calling the power supply “ground” “earth” and …UM [%-)]
This sounds like DCC talk … which is more convoluted than Washington DC talk.
Think I’ll stick with Direct Current
You guys over there on the other side of the pond always did call it ‘earth’ and not ‘ground’
Just like other aspects of this hobby, there’s no rason to use made up or alternate or incorrect terminology. It’s a ‘common’ plain and simple in standard terms, not some made-up DCC-speak. The varation occurs with the American side saying ‘ground’ and the British side saying “earth” but those are one in the same and NOT necessarily the same as the ‘common’
A common is simply a common reference point for various circuits and components. In digital logic, you need a common as a reference point to determine what is a 1 bit and what is a 0 bit, usually specified by two different voltage levels with respect to said common. In analog circuits, you have the same thing, only instead of the discrete values you have a wide range of voltages.
Your DC layout probably has a common too - unless you double-gapped all your blocks.
–Randy
Randy it is like my bloody Rolls. The boot will not stay up, the bonnet needs to be waxed and there is a chip in my windscreen.
American for that is The ^&(&*^ trunk will not stay closed the hood looks like heck and needs to be waxed and the windshield has a chip in it.
Oh well ay least it is LHD not HOME drive. Had a RHD and it was great except for the people about running into me becasues they saw no driver. I put a LARGE Teddy Bear in the Left front seat, that stopped it!! LOL
OK, what are we talking about that is not included in the phone type connections that I use to connect everything???
Current carrying capacity. When your train crosses the boundry of a reverse loop, the short current needs a common reference. If you do not run a wire from GND terminal of the booster to the PM42 (or whatever you are using), that current has to flow in the teeny tiny wires in the Loconet phone cord. A common cause for auto-reverse failures is not connecting the common wire.
If you use other than Digitrax - the same applies. The DCC signal varies around a common reference point, usually connected to the booster case and/or a terminal on the booster.
–Randy
Is it fair to say that if I do not have a reversing loop, I do not need a reference ground?
If you have a single booster, no circuit breakers, no reverse loops, then no, there is no need for a reference ground. If you have block detection you might need a reference to the detector circuit though.
–Randy
Example: My A&N R>R>
Command Center DCS100 (this is the BASE for MY railroad) has a program track and is connected to a Computer via Locobuffer USB and to the Layout Via Loconet (6 conducter phone cord) this handels the Nanticoke yard and engine terminal.
Ashley Junction DB150#1 Controls access track and the sidings in Ashley(connected to loconet and REFERENCE GROUND
Ashley Junction DB150 #2 Handels Tortoise duty (Connected to Loconet and Reference Ground)
Ashley Yards and Engine Terminal DB150 Connected via Loconet and Reference Ground
Palmerton DB150 controls all access and sidings in Palmerton Connected via Loconet and Reference ground. This booster is 65 ft from the DCS100 command center. No way a signal will reach the DCS100 vis the 6 conducter phone line.
There are (6) UP5 and (1) UP3 and (1) UR91 also on loconet and attached to Reference ground.
With this type of a system you see why the Reference ground is important to the system.
Hope this all makes sense to people.