Hello,
What wire modular connectors do you use to connect modular tables? Our modulars are HO scale.
They are set to NMRA standards. We are asking about the wires that go between tables(modulars)
to connect them together to operate the layout. The standards being shown on NMRA site are not available from Radio Shack.
Please be specific with part numbers and where to purchase plugs or connectors.
Thank you. Timothy
Those Cinch-Jones connectors specified by the NMRA standards are very difficult to find today. The only source of them that I could locate a few years ago was Mouser Electronics in Mansfield, Texas, and they were over $1 each; and you needed 4 sets for each module. The latest Mouser catalog I have no longer lists them.
If you are never going to be connecting your modules with another club, you can use any type of connectors you want. They should be polarized if possible to prevent the wires from being connected wrong between modules.
We are currently using polarized connectors acquired from All Electronics in Van Nuys, California. All catalog number CON-40, priced at $1.60 per pair if you order more than 10. You get both the male and female ends connected to a 10 inch long wire. The CON-40 has 4 wires, and you can also get them with up to 9 wires per.
http://www.allelectronics.com/index.php?page=search&search_query=CON-40
To see the versions with more wires, the All catalog numbers are CON-60 (6 wires) and CON-90 (9 wires).
If you do hope or intend to connect your modules with another club, you should check with them and use the same type of connections.
This is not a modular table setup, but a removable part of a fixed layout - namely, the throat of my Mikasa hidden staging yard.
The unit, built on its own separate frame, lifts out of the main layout after four wing nuts are unscrewed from the hold-down studs. The lift-out is an odd shape, just under 5 feet long and maxing out at 15 inches wide. It supports six sets of points, each powered by a twin-coil switch machine, and has to connect appropriate rail power to the fixed tracks to which it attaches - power-routing switches with hot frogs. The final item is circuitry for track selection lights on the control panel.
All of the necessary wires, 24 in all, are routed to a female 25-pin miniature D-socket bolted to one main girder of the liftout. The matching male plug is on the end of a cable and completes the connection between the liftout and the ‘mainland.’
Miniature D-plugs and matching sockets come in a variety of pin counts. My next yard throat wiring project will require a 36-pin connection to handle 8 sets of points and 2 additional yard tracks. I have seen such in a number of paper and web catalogs.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Our HO club went with the 30 amp Anderson powerpole connectors, Which is what N-Track has gone to.
http://www.ntrak.org/ntrak_powerpole_rp.htm
The’re modular, color coded, and when purchased in quanity, won’t break the bank.
we got ours here, they seemed to have the best price, and plenty of stock
http://www.connex-electronics.com/
part # is PP-30-KIT
when the listing comes up click on html button under the data sheet box for detail page.
IIRC, we got 200 kits for $120 + shipping, each of our modules uses 6 kits, two for each mailline bus pair, and two for the accy bus pair
If you are needing the Cinch-Jones plugs which most NMRA modules (and Free-Mo for that matter) use, there are plenty of sources. The P-302-CCT (plug) and S-302-CCT (socket) are the part numbers, do a google search and you will find the sources. I’ve used Allied, Newark and Jameco. The generally run about 4-5 dollars each but you can find them cheaper from time to time.
Ricky
If you have to connect with other people’s modules you’ll have to go with what the group has set for its standards. But, if you don’t have to conform to someone else’s standards, you might consider automotive trailer connectors. You can get them from any automotive supply store or the automotive section of a department store or a trailer/RV dealer. The ones I’m talking about are the square or rectangular rubber covered ones with attached wires. They come as a male/female pair attached to both ends of about a foot of colour-coded wire. You just cut the wire in half and splice them onto the ends of your module wires. They’re polarized and come with 2 to 6 pins.
I used those too. They are cheap, widely available and rugged.
All Electronics is a good place, but you should remember that they are a surplus house. What they carry today that may not have next week or next year. Was it me, I’d be sure to order enough for the entire project and some spares and future growth, 'cause they might not be there in the years to come.
If it becomes necessary to plug into modules with a different connector you can always make up a few pigtails, short lengths of wire with different connectors on each end.
The modular club I belong to uses standards that pre-date the NMRA specs. The main difference is that instead of using a 2-pin connector for each mainline, we use a 4-pin connector so that both mainlines are connected at once, with no possibility of the wires getting crossed (if they’re wired correctly to begin with, anyway!).
The 2-pin connectors are still available from Jameco:
As has been mentioned, our club has been using automotive trailer plugs for over 25 years now without any problems. They are cheap and rugged, don’t break like the fragile plastic plugs, and can be wired to the tracks using similarly colored four strand trailer wire. I can recall when we first started our modules, we were going to go with the electronic plugs, but they were around $12 a pair; the automotive trailer ones were around $3.00. More expensive these days, but still a rugged bargain. If they can withstand being connected to trailers outside in all kinds of weather and conditions, they should be just fine for our modules.