PACman Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 For all those feeling uncomfortable with soldering under their baseboards, perhaps do what I have done on my home based layout. I have run my power bus around the outside edge of the boards (using ring-main, solid core, twin and earth, pinned using hyatts clips to the leading edge of the board frames). I have drilled 7mm holes at intervals in the board frames and bring my dropper wires out through the front. In this way all soldering can be done to the power bus without crawling upside down under the baseboards. Once my wiring is completed (still much to finish here) I will cover the leading edge and all the power bus wiring with a wiring conduit cover...should look neat when completed, and makes the wiring accessible if I need to add new accessory decoders in future. Paul. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewC Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 I'm using stranded core 6a twin & earth with the outer casing cut away and the wire stripped where appropriate. See the thread about http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63125-lets-see-the-wiring-under-your-baseboard/&do=findComment&comment=818256 "lets see the wiring under your layout" . Droppers all soldered to the bus with no more than around 24" between droppers. Since the layout requires 5 different power zones, a module can have as many as 3 different bus runs under it. On hidden tracks the droppers are soldered to the sides of the rail. On scenic areas the droppers are soldered to the underside of the rail before the track is laid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
28XX Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Thread one of these onto each of the the bus wires every foot or so and screw to the underside of the baseboard. Also available in 12 way for crowded areas. ScrewFix and B&Q amongst many others. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Thread these onto the bus wires and screw to the underside of the baseboard. Also available in 12 way for crowded areas. ScrewFix and B&Q amongst many others. Curiosty? They look like all metal construction and if so wouldn't they short out between connectors? Or is the intention of them to do just that and to only be used for a single side of circuit? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
28XX Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 Yes they are, original post edited to clarify. Less than £1.50 each if you buy a box full. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shibushe Posted October 24, 2012 Share Posted October 24, 2012 My Layout is a 16ft x 8ft tail chaser. The Bus is Self adhesive copper tape that runs round the open area in the middle if you see what I mean. This is stuck to the baseboard frame that sits about an inch from the front overlap. So I can sit on my stool and solder away. From a personal point of view I would not use any other method of fixing droppers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Posted October 24, 2012 Author Share Posted October 24, 2012 Those all metal choc blocks look good to me giving you the option of disconnecting a dropper for easy fault finding/replacement. I am drawn to soldering but my last attempt at bus wiring saw an over zelous joint where my dropper was wrapped around the core of the bus wire half a dozen times before soldering it. Lots of solder, bulky joints and a nightmare to remove if it turns out your soldered joint was lousy... So lets say I am going to stick with soldering (my baseboard tops detach from the legs so can be put on their side for wiring up all the droppers), whats the correct method for soldering the dropper to the bus wire (2.5mm solid core twin and earth)??? D> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
28XX Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 Strip and tin the 2.5 T&E every foot or so (or as appropriate for for layout) before mounting on under the board. Tin both ends of the droppers before attaching to the rails. Wrap the dropper round the bus ONCE. Apply heat and very little extra solder. Job done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted October 25, 2012 Share Posted October 25, 2012 So lets say I am going to stick with soldering (my baseboard tops detach from the legs so can be put on their side for wiring up all the droppers), whats the correct method for soldering the dropper to the bus wire (2.5mm solid core twin and earth)??? If you can already solder, then it's mostly personal pereference, rather than any way being more correct. My preferred way is to use a pair of automatic wire strippers (e.g. Rapid http://www.rapidonline.com/Tools-Equipment/Automatic-Wire-Stripper-86-0390/?sid=50ce6a5f-c7fd-4e31-a80d-f3f50069bea9 ) to pull apart the bus insulation without nicking the conductor. This can be done with the bus in place on the layout, making it easy to determine exactly where to connect a dropper. Keep the droppers as short as you can and you can use thinner wire which you may find easier to solder to the rail and disguise. Solder to the bottom or side of the rail, or even rail joiners? That's a whole new topic :-) Wrap the dropper round the bus a few times and solder with normal cored solder as osld for electronics work. No additional flux is required. You will find 2.5mm T&E makes quite a good heatsink and wil suck the heat away readily. A 50W temperature controlled iron makes the job easy. Stagger the conections to the two bus wires so thay cannot short. If there is a possibilty of shorting to any other wirong then insulate the joint. Use a dropper for each piece of rail. Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reitbok Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Do these strippers remove the insulation from the bus without cutting it first? I used Scotchlocks on my layout because I didn't want to keep cutting the bus and possibly lose mechanical integrity. However, I did have a few failures where the insulation on the bus wasn't pierced and I'm concerned that over time more failures will occur, so I'm thinking of replacing them with soldering. I'm still concerned about soldering 'uphill' though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewC Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Do these strippers remove the insulation from the bus without cutting it first? I used Scotchlocks on my layout because I didn't want to keep cutting the bus and possibly lose mechanical integrity. However, I did have a few failures where the insulation on the bus wasn't pierced and I'm concerned that over time more failures will occur, so I'm thinking of replacing them with soldering. I'm still concerned about soldering 'uphill' though. One issue with Scotchlocks is to make sure you use the right sized one, and use the same gauge of wire for both the dropper and the bus. If the suitcase is the right size for the wire used you should never get a missed piercing when fully clamped. Getting ones that are suitable for the bus wire then using a thinner wire for the dropper is a recipe for failure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reitbok Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 I think this is where I went wrong. However I was following the advice from 'Model Railroader' magazine, March 2012 that recommends 16AWG for the bus and 22AWG for the droppers. Another lesson learnt! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 Do these strippers remove the insulation from the bus without cutting it first? The strippers I referred to will remove the insulation from the cut end of a wire. In the middle of a bus you use them to simply part the insulation without removing any. Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted October 28, 2012 Share Posted October 28, 2012 One issue with Scotchlocks is to make sure you use the right sized one, and use the same gauge of wire for both the dropper and the bus. As I said in a previous post, the issue is to use the appropriate wire size for the connector. This is NOT always the same size for the two wires, depending on the connector being used. They are known generically as "tap splice" connectors. Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dale Posted February 9, 2013 Author Share Posted February 9, 2013 One option i am considering is using some form of strip (tag strips???) branched off on some heavy wire from the bus to a point local to a lot of droppers. I had a look at a tag strip in Maplin's yesterday and i dont think they do what i thought they did, in that i dont think these things allow you to fan out multiple connections from one. Tag strips worth thinking about? D. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RFS Posted February 9, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 9, 2013 One option i am considering is using some form of strip (tag strips???) branched off on some heavy wire from the bus to a point local to a lot of droppers. I had a look at a tag strip in Maplin's yesterday and i dont think they do what i thought they did, in that i dont think these things allow you to fan out multiple connections from one. Tag strips worth thinking about? D. Why not consider the earth blocks (see post #29)? These will surely do what you want and eliminate any need to solder under the baseboard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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