Lets see the wiring under YOUR Baseboard

[Pacific231G]

How do some of you people that have posted above ever trace faults. The wiring is a mess, and often in the same colour. What a night mare.

Steve, I've not noticed you posting a photo of your own wiring!

 

Mine IS messy but it's logical and fault tracing has actually proved fairly easy as there are just two wires from the main panel connector to the tag strip for each set of points and the frog feeds are local so there's always somewhere to get the test probes in. The choccy blocks btw are acting as guides not as terminals. The one thing I'm not happy with is the Fulgurex motors they're very noisy and the recommended linkage is an engineering nonsense. I used them because this layout had Tillig H0m points which are good but the blades are not hinged and require a fairly large force to throw them. so I figured that the forces exerted by a solenoid motor would put too much strain on the tie bar but if I use slow speed motors again I'd go for a different make.

[Gwiwer]

Just when I thought I was enjoying my modelling along comes this thread .........

 

Rats would consider my wiring unacceptable for nesting in. I'm definitely not showing it on here. On the other hand there is logic to it and I can trace faults.

 

White = power bus and droppers

Red and black = points activation (wiring as per Bachmann surface motor colours)

Green = points power feed

Blue = station and street lighting

Brown = Anything not included above such as transformer output to point levers power feed

[250BOB]

Just when I thought I was enjoying my modelling along comes this thread .........

 

Rats would consider my wiring unacceptable for nesting in. I'm definitely not showing it on here. On the other hand there is logic to it and I can trace faults.

 

White = power bus and droppers

Red and black = points activation (wiring as per Bachmann surface motor colours)

Green = points power feed

Blue = station and street lighting

Brown = Anything not included above such as transformer output to point levers power feed

 

Chicken...!!!!

[96701]

My rats nest is actually also logical. ts a DCC layout. Blue is one rail, Yellow is another. I've got a decoder for the points, and they use red and green. Lighting is black and red. It is only a 8' x 2' TMD so I can see where the wires go.

[Silver Sidelines]

In answer to the question here is a view under my boards! DC cab control with five separate control panels. There are two common returns (blue and brown) for points and power. There are also interconnecting wires between the different panels.

 

 

A view from the top side

 

 

If you want to know want to know more you can look here on my Blog

[Guest]

Here's mine earlier this year, I've tried to keep it as neat as possible to trace any faults but to also stop wires getting snagged when moving the layout, wiring is my least favourite part of the hobby so i'm keeping it as simple as possible.

Its starting to resemble a tube map now though.

 

 

Graham.

 

Cor blimey Graham! That's the neatest wiring I've seen in a while!!!

[shanks522]

Thanks Oli, I have tried to keep it as neat as possible, Wiring is my least favourite subject so i'd rather not do it twice, I remember years ago a layout i had built was going to an exhibition and the night before the wiring was shorting out and resembled a birds nest so the only thing to do was rip it all out and start again, not fun and quite stressful so now keep it as simple as i can.

 

Graham.

[RobertW]

What methods do people use to label their wiring. I am thinking of rewiring my layout and am interested in using a better method of labelling.

[Gwiwer]

Biro (black) on insulating tape (yellow). Hasn't rubbed off or faded in six years.

[Pacific231G]

What methods do people use to label their wiring. I am thinking of rewiring my layout and am interested in using a better method of labelling.

There's nothing tidy about my wiring but I have I've found it useful to draw the trackplan full size on the underside of the baseboard with the gaps also marked. That way when you mislay your wiring diagram (yes you will !!) you'll have a better idea which hole with a wire in it emerges next to which rail. I do name and number the points and tracks according to prototype methods (for France in my case!) which also helps. I use a return bus which I conventionally mark as -ve then it's mostly only the +ve feeds to rails and the switched feeds to frogs that need to be labelled. 

[melmerby]

Thought I add one of my boards (recently completed) before it gets fixed in position.

9mm WBF ply top and edges

Haven't posted before as the layout is permanent and not easy to photograph those already fitted

 

 

This is the shed yard with Fleischmann turntable with LDT TT-DEC controller.

There are also 2 LDT RS 8 block detectors to cover the 13 blocks so far wired in.

My other boards are similar

 

15v AC is orange wiring

RS feedback is screened twin

All block wiring is 1.5mm (ex mains) cable, fed with 2.5mm from main DCC bus

Flexible droppers are 14/0.2

Terminal blocks from Screwfix - I started with Maplin or Market stall and they were not up to it e.g. stripped threads, split brass etc.

 

EDIT the track is marked in approximately with pencil (barely visible in photo!)

 

Keith

[Hector Lawn]

Blimey! It's taken me a while to locate this post - Electrics page 22!

Here's the underboard wiring for my Charwelton N gauge layout. I have attempted to stitch the separate board images together to show the whole layout length, admittedly not stitched together that well!

Scenic boards...



And the storage yard boards...



Wiring for the DCC bus, 54 Seep point solenoids in all plus 6 signals.
Not quite as neat as some on here, but not exactly a rat's nest either.

 

I must say it's not easy trying to keep the DCC bus positive and negative feeds apart AND keep the point motor wiring separate from the DCC bus AND keep it tidy!

Regards
Hector

[class"66"]

Banks road base board wiring and boosters...

[Gwiwer]

This topic has been reawakened and allows me to now post a couple of views of what rats refuse to nest in.  I've seen better tangles when I upset the spaghetti pan.  But you asked .....

 

 

 

These are taken at an incomplete stage as the completed wiring now extends from the blocks back to the panel and everything miraculously works.

[Guest]

DCC. Just two wires, they said. "They" lied... Still amazed everything works as it should. I hate wiring.

 

[28XX]

My colour scheme fwiw.

 

Brown & Blue. Live and neutral on AC circuits

 

Red & Black. Track feeds and common return

 

Orange. Point motor supply wiring

 

Grey. Point motor looped return to CDU

 

White twin speaker wire. Point motor Normal and Reverse

 

Multi core cables are used for longer runs

[Clive Mortimore]

Looking at the various photos of other peoples wiring I am amazed at the number of people who do not label their wires, how do you go about fault finding if you do not know which wire you are looking at?

 

When I worked at Marconi's we use to have small number sleeves on the wires that told us what wire was what. When wiring a cable form (cable loom) with over a thousand wires colour coding is useless so wires need some identification.  I do not use these sleeves, but you can buy them from the likes of Maplin etc. I simply use a thin sticky label with the wire number on each end of the wire. Each wire is documented where it runs from and to.

[Gordon H]

When I worked at Marconi's we use to have small number sleeves on the wires that told us what wire was what.

 

The New Street works in Chelmsford used to have a facility for adding multiple stripes to plain wires to colour code them, primarily (I think) for telephone exchange use. I only saw it working a couple of times during my apprenticeship there.

[Clive Mortimore]

The New Street works in Chelmsford used to have a facility for adding multiple stripes to plain wires to colour code them, primarily (I think) for telephone exchange use. I only saw it working a couple of times during my apprenticeship there.

Hi Gordon

 

Was the colour coding was on the ends using the same colour coding as used on resistors or the whole length? While I was an assembly inspector I cannot recall seeing anything that coloured the wires.

 

While I was working for Radio and Line, the department that made bits for BT, we had Marconi's first printed board automatic component assembling machine. It could do six components at a time, the boards were then finished by hand and manually placed on the flow solder machine. My uncle was working for Rank-Xerox at the time and we got chatting about PCB assembly and he said most of theirs were done by one machine that was putting 20 plus components on at a time and then placing the board on to the flow soldering machine. And the people of Chelmsford wonder why the New Street works is now flats for city commuters to live in.

[sigtech]

I'm afraid that my layout must definately come under the "rats nest" category,- even though its small, as using flush - doors as a baseboard means there is nowhere to route or hide the wiring, so its held in place with small zip ties, or fixed with electrical tape/ "sticky fixers" into convenient bundles.

It also developed over time with no real pre planning...

 

I use conventional Analogue DC (cab-control), with electric point motors (Seep) and Dapol electric semaphore signals.There is a colour code of sorts, and all wires are recorded (colour, start terminal - function/ voltage - end terminal) along with a wiring schematic in the Sproston  Layout Wiring Book.

 

Regards

SIGTECH (Steve).

[steve W]

I'm cheating! It's not my layout, but a club one that I have done the design and a fair bit of the wiring for. My own small  layout is a bit of a rat nest, having started off with the same good intentions (wire marking drawings, updated drawings, secured wires etc....) but it has been used for trying out various techniques and ideas from which it has never recovered.

The pic below is board 3 of Kensington Addison Road, a 7mm project of Twickenham MRC. The brief was DC for traction (3 controllers, common return), MERG CBUS for control and the bit that really complicated it, no isolating switches and automatic selection of the correct controller for the route. The layout is an end to end with through station with terminal bays and a 'drive towards you philosophy. Not too difficult to implement on the main lines, but much more of a problem in the bays where the same track can, in one instance, be connected to any of three controllers depending on the track setting.

All wiring is  colour coded, mostly marked and held with good ole' file binder combs - incidentally, ignore the soothsayers who say tell you these things disintegrate quickly. They might when used for intended purpose and stored on open shelves with plenty of daylight in an office, but under a baseboard there's not much of that and they do the job nicely. Uhu holds them in place. Drawings are kept up to date so that helps with identification issues and includes plenty of comments :

 

 

There are only two connections between boards, an 18way that carries all the power with a couple of spare ways and a 4core for the MERG system. The third 18c grey wire in the pic is the connection to the power supply unit.

Not yet installed when this picture was taken are the servos for the signals and lighting wiring. Point motors are stall motors, mostly recovered from ex- cash ATM machines, they are a nice coreless motors with 70:1 gear head and simply rock from side to side when the polarity is changed, current limited by a 500Ohm resistor. (about £3 each when we chanced across a supply!)Frog polarity is switched by the relays (green wiring, because frogs are green).

I must tidy my own layout up..

Cheers

Steve W.

[Clive Mortimore]

Looking at the various photos of other peoples wiring I am amazed at the number of people who do not label their wires, how do you go about fault finding if you do not know which wire you are looking at?

 

Cor Blimey, Layouts with wires which are numbered are like buses. None for ages, and as soon as you start to winge two turn up together.

[cliff park]

If you take the cover off any telephone connection point in your house you will most likely see, unless your wiring is very, very old, wires with stripes. eg blue and blue/white, pair one, then orange and orange/white, pair two and so on.

[kevinlms]

If you take the cover off any telephone connection point in your house you will most likely see, unless your wiring is very, very old, wires with stripes. eg blue and blue/white, pair one, then orange and orange/white, pair two and so on.

As is all Cat5 and Cat6 data cable. Often used for phones.

But old phone switchboards, used to have lots of coloured wires, created by printing various colours on to base colours.

[Hector Lawn]

Looking at the various photos of other peoples wiring I am amazed at the number of people who do not label their wires, how do you go about fault finding if you do not know which wire you are looking at?

 

 

 

My wiring is not labelled but it is colour-coded and any terminations have been numbered and noted down in an exercise book with a separate page for each board for future reference and fault finding. The only labelling underneath my baseboard identifies the board number itself, the numbering of each point or signal, and the numbering pattern of the D-plugs.

 

I don't anticipate any problems fault finding with the method and markings I have in place.

 

Hector