I started my day off sorting about 40 tiny light bulbs, some red and some white.
The red ones I put aside for my hobos camp fire, the glow of the bat cave and the warning lights on my quarry tower and life guard tower on the lake, the white ones would be installed inside of my buildings and then the street lamp posts would go in last.
I wired two bulbs in sequence as to give them a more natural level of light for an HO lamp post and some that I wanted brighter I wired direct, after the 40 bulbs were in place I had to deal with a mass of wires hanging below the layout all of which are waiting for me to wire to the power source tomorrow on my next day off.
I went to radio shack to find a power distribution strip but they didn’t have any that would work, they had one type that made no sense the screws were not linked by any metal so I didn’t see how that would work.
I’ll figure something out, in the mean time the under side of my layout looks like a spider got into my wires and began to weave a massive web.
I did have the fore thought to label all my wires so I knew what would go to which switch.
I have about 20 switches that will light up different scenes and buildings when down, this way the town is not always lit the same way, some times only a few windows will be casting light and some times all of the buildings will be in use, it keeps the look from getting boring, I’ll post night time picks as soon as they are all up and running.
Of all the tasks to building an HO lay out I disliked wiring the most.
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” - remember that line form the Wizard of Oz!
It reminds me of how your control panel will look soon with all those wires and switches. [:D]
Seriously though, you really have come a long way in such a short period of time. Already tacking some electricals eh! You might want to think about getting some twist ties too for your wiring schema. And a color coded diagram of the electrical wiring helps too!
I don’t profess to have the best electrical skills, but here are a few photos of my wiring techniques:
COLOR CODING (and writing it down) is helpful, down the road when doing repair work or replacing something. Your ‘labeling’ is also helpful identifying what the wire goes to .
Use Barrier Terminal strips.
THING about wiring: once it’s tested & working right, you are set. You can leave it. Everything else requires maintenance. Or is that more fun?
All of my wiring is done from terminal block to terminal block, and all of my under-layout wiring (except for very temporary test wiring to brand-new trackage) is confined to neat cable runs.
My terminal blocks are home-made - a sheet of insulating material (I have used plywood and thick sheet styrene) drilled with neat rows of holes, through which I’ve installed 6/32 machine screws (anchored with nuts). Wires are added to each terminal, with washers separating them and a nut on top to secure the whole. I use solid wire, and have put as many as six wires on a single terminal - more than that, and I install a jumper and use a second screw. Every terminal is identified, on the block, on my spreadsheet record and on a sheet of paper in my electrical data folder. Likewise, every wire is fully identified - start terminal, end terminal, color code (I use salvaged communication cable wire) - and recorded both on the spreadsheet and in hard copy.
My system might be overkill for somebody with a small, simple layout. For a large, complex layout it’s invaluable. One additional advantage. All of the terminal blocks are along the aisleway, just behind the removable fascia. No standing on my head under the layout!
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - analog DC, MZL system)
Not only do i use terminal strips as suggested, I use plastic tie wraps and plastic wire hangers to get my wiring in some sort of order. i’ll tie wrap them into bundles and then screw in the plastic wire hangers under the layout and insert the wire bundles into the hangers. i’d like to also make a suggestion since you are installing so many lights. You may need a couple of auxilary power packs for all those bulbs. After i installed a DCC system, I used my old DC power packs for lighting power and found that you can get about 12-15 12v bulbs and about 12 tortoise machines onto one power pack before the power pack starts getting hot enough to trip the circuit breaker. I wired most of them to the train power rehostat part of the pack so that i can turn the power down to the bulbs. Even though the bulbs aren’t on full bright, it keeps the pack from getting hot and extends the life of the miniature bulbs…chuck
Terminal strips at the shaft should have come with jumpers, but the jumpers were sold seperately. Today’s radioshaft is 99% concerned with shoving cellular in your face and not having a clue about the rest of the business. Funny thing is, they do have training books and give the employees exams on this stuff, but nobody takes it seriously. Probably a good reason that when I left in 2002 the stock was at 39 and it’s now at about 18.
We carried 25 conductor wire in bulk until about 2000. It got discontinued and reduced to 7cents a foot. Each lead is color coded differently, but the wire is thin so it can only be used for low current applications.
Quite right about radioshaft! Any time I go there for something, all I get is “we don’t have that”. All they care about is cel phones.
Excellent idea to build your own terminal strips! Using the ring or ‘U’ type crimp connectors on wire ends will allow many wires to be connected easily to the same screw terminal.
Another great idea about using old power packs for lights and accessories, I had planned on using this myself, since I have 3 old Tyco train set packs and my MRC Tech II after i install a DCC system.
Wire is also available at pretty much every auto parts store, usually in 10, 12, and 14 ga. in spools of either 25’ or 100’. Colors are often limited to black, white, red, blue, brown, green, and yellow. The pricing is usually decent.
Now lets see, I did pick up the twist ties and a wire numbering system, you know the 1-0 numbered tape that comes in the red dispencer but I can see I’m missing a few things.
I do have two extra power packs, one has a 16 volt terminal, I don’t know what that ones for since the trains run on the 12volt variable set of terminals, I hooked up the 16 volt and all the locomotive did was light up and make a lot of noise so I shut it down within a secound as not to burn out my locomotive (If any one can tell me what use the 16 volt one is for I’d be a happy man).
The barrier blocks, as these used to run one set of wires from the power pack and then split off to the individual sets of lights?
I will be wiring one set of (2) lights at a time, assigning them a number, marking the wire and then logging what number goes to what 2 bulbs in series.
I didn’t think about wire hangers until it was brought up here, a very good idea, I was just going to leave the tail on the zip ties and staple that to the underside of the layout, I think the hangers would look better and keep it neat.
I have all the switches built into the front of a silver brief case and this is screwed to the side of the layout, the reason I did this is because I can unlatch the front cover and swing it down to get at the switche backs for wiring, I didn’t like that the switches came out too close because I used the old panel from the switch face as a guide and didn’t account for the “flare” of the magic marker.
Come to think of it, I’m going to make another switch panel instead of doing all that switch wiring on something I don’t like.
As always the members here jump in and save the day, I’ll have too make sure that I don’t over load the power packs and burn them up or out before their time.
Jess, some of the commercially available mini-lamps are 16v. I use 12v bulbs for my lighting, with a couple of MRC throttles. If you use a supply voltage that’s lower than the voltage rating of the lights, they’ll look more realistic AND last a lot longer. I’ve found ALL of the electrical stuff that I need (toggle switches, terminal strips, etc.) at All Electronics Give them a try.
The 16 volt A/C can be used for lighting and accessory items like Atlas coil type turnout machines. They require an A/C current to work. Use the 16 volt for everything but the locomotives or any other equipment that is rated for a D/C power supply only. A lot of hand held throttles require a 16V A/C supply but they also convert the current to D/C when attached to the track. The A/C current can burn up your locomotive motors because the locomotive motors are strickly built for D/C current only.
To understand this, you have to know the properties of A/C and D/C current. In other words an A/C current travels thru a wire in two directions. It occilates back and forth thru the wires at warp speed. On the other hand, D/C current moves in only one direction. it travels from the power source from the - post thru a load (like a light bulb or a locomotive motor) and back to the power source thru the + wire. If you want to change A/C current to D/C then all that is required is that a diode be inserted into one of the wires. If you’ve ever seen an oscilloscope A/C wave pattern then you will notice that it makes a wave. The diode will cut out 1/2 of the wave causing it to become a D/C current…chuck
If you think your layout looks like a spider web underneath, try looking under mine! [:O]
As for the barrier terminal strips from RS not having joining bars, make your own. There are two screws for each position on the terminal strip, one row down the left side, one row down the right side. They’re joined to each other in pairs. Take a piece of solid wire and weave it through the terminals on one side and connect your lights to the other side. Cost? $0. Or if the terminal strips have only one row of screws, put the solid wire and the lamp wires under the same screws.
The black barrier terminal strips are a bit on the big side. Try using what’s called “European” terminal strips. They are made out of a pale coloured plastic, the wires insert into the sides of the terminals and are secured by tightening a screw from the top. Each terminal is paired with the one opposite it. They come in 2 or 3 different sizes, to accomodte different gauges of wire. They can be easily cut with a razor saw to make shorter strips. RS used to carry them, don’t know if they still do. You can turn them into buss strips by using the same method as for the barrier strips.
For a power supply for your lights, try “wall warts” or wall plug power supplies. That’s those black blocks that plug directly into the wall outlet and deliver a variety of voltages and currents, either DC or AC. Just be sure that the total number of milliamps drawn by your lamps isn’t more than about 80% of the current rating of the wall wart.
You’ll get longer life out of your bulbs by running them about 10% or so below their rated voltage and they’ll actually look better. That is, operate 16 volt bulbs from 12 volts, 12 volt bulbs from 10 volts, 6 volt bulbs from 5 volts, etc.
Ok now you need an asperin because you’re making butt jokes. [(-D]
Wiring has always been something of a pain but a necessary one you usually only have to do once.
I also like my wiring to be as simple as possible since I don’t really like crawling under anything for any reason. My knees don’t like it and neither does my back.
The wiring under my layout looks like 2 or more spider webs. A great deal of my wiring is to first power 43 turnouts (this takes 3 wires each ) and secondly, to power about 20 blocks. Unfortunately, I did not use a certain color wire for a certain job, thus I keep my fingers crossed that the wiring does not fail. I am perhaps like most in this business, that is, if I knew when I started what I have learned over the years, I would have done things differently and hopefully, a good bit better.
