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DC wiring advice wanted


Emmo
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I think I am right in what I have attached, but can someone with more knowledge on these things please advise me if my wiring is correct here for DC. The SS symbol denotes the line coming into the station from the other parts of the layout.

Many thanks.186523968_503731390975886_1504971674801047707_n.jpg.40dad1c3b0b11899d83cecd8e06e6e1c.jpg

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You want to have all your feeds at the 'toe' or switch end of the points, so the two feeds on the top half of the layout need to move towards the centre otherwise you'll have no power in the loop when you drive a train in.  Apart from that it should be okay.

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It depends what you are trying to achieve. The simplest way of having a layout like this with insulfrog points is just to have a single power supply on the line entering the station, and a jumper wire connecting the upper rail of the headshunt to the upper rail of the line entering the station; this rail is otherwise not connected to the supply if the turnout is set to the headshunt. This means you can isolate various bits of the station using turnouts alone, and you only need a single incoming power supply connection.

 

image.png.9f258f49ba446fa32a4e7a3d79e6cc74.png

 

I've just been working out how to do basically the same thing with electrofrog turnouts (the far crossover is the other way round, but this makes no difference to how it works). If I've worked it out properly this would need three polarity switched sections but still just one supply connection;

 

image.png.11e4ed5d967100d42cf346df50c4a67f.png

Red section: black supply if 1 straight, white supply if 1 curved

Blue section: as red loop if 3+4 are straight, otherwise white supply

Green section: as red loop if 2 straight, black supply if 2 curved

 

Edited by Phil Himsworth
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1 hour ago, Dungrange said:

You want to have all your feeds at the 'toe' or switch end of the points, so the two feeds on the top half of the layout need to move towards the centre otherwise you'll have no power in the loop when you drive a train in.  Apart from that it should be okay.

 

That is how I would do it too..lots of smaller sections, for more than 1 reason.

 

Once the track is laid, it is far easier to electrically join sections 'below the board' than it is to lift track to separate sections from above.

Small sections are easier to troubleshoot because you will not get feeds from unexpected places. I seem to get inflicted with this problem on every single layout I have been asked to help sort out wiring faults with.

It doesn't matter if the points are insulfrog, electrofrog or unifrog. The same principle will work for all.

If you ever have to work on a DCC layout, all the differences are all 'below the board' (the sections get wired together rather than through a panel or switches.

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Thanks for all your help on this guys. It is of a prototype station so I'm unable to adopt Phil's suggestion, moving the feeds as David suggests seems the simplest so I will be adopting that. That said, thanks to all of you for taking the time to solve my problem, much appreciated.

Martin

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The isolator in the loop doesn't seem very useful, an isolated section on a siding woud be more use.   I would just use three feeds, and if using DCC stick a 1 amp breaker in the feed.   If you are using lash up of 6 or 7 sound fitted US outline diesels then I would use a forest of droppers but there isn't really room for them on this tiny layout.

Screenshot (338).png

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Depending on how complicated you want to be

I'd be inclined to go this way

"Sw" indicates where a switch could be placed to isolate the section

If you wanted to be able to use 2 controllers then you could feed them through a DPDT centre off Switch to each section

I've shown one section wired for block control

 

wiring.png.b5a3d37bae81577df1db9b2b1d37bd8d.png

John

Edit As Cliff pointed out in the next post there was a serious error in the drawing . Should be fixed now

 

Edited by John ks
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On 17/05/2021 at 22:02, Phil Himsworth said:

It depends what you are trying to achieve. The simplest way of having a layout like this with insulfrog points is just to have a single power supply on the line entering the station, and a jumper wire connecting the upper rail of the headshunt to the upper rail of the line entering the station; this rail is otherwise not connected to the supply if the turnout is set to the headshunt. This means you can isolate various bits of the station using turnouts alone, and you only need a single incoming power supply connection.

 

image.png.9f258f49ba446fa32a4e7a3d79e6cc74.png

 

I've just been working out how to do basically the same thing with electrofrog turnouts (the far crossover is the other way round, but this makes no difference to how it works). If I've worked it out properly this would need three polarity switched sections but still just one supply connection;

 

image.png.11e4ed5d967100d42cf346df50c4a67f.png

Red section: black supply if 1 straight, white supply if 1 curved

Blue section: as red loop if 3+4 are straight, otherwise white supply

Green section: as red loop if 2 straight, black supply if 2 curved

 

Not thrilled about that wiring diagram at all.

 

What a good method of wiring provides is flexibility of running and being able to isolate locos if required.

Yes, it can be done your way, but it is a method that doesn't expand out easily on a larger track plan. A good wiring plan is a series of basic circuits repeated out. David Broad's version is the minimum flexible requirement.

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20 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Yes, it can be done your way, but it is a method that doesn't expand out easily on a larger track plan.

Hence why I said it was the simplest way of doing it. It requires just three wire to rail and one wire to wire joins; if that is all you need then any further complexity just risks faults for no reason.

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