powercab short

[kensoul77]

Hi, I finally managed to get up and running in dcc, at least the goods yard anyway. I was really pleased with myself and spent last night and this morning soldering the rest of my droppers in place, however now when I turn the power on the red light does not work on the power cab panel and this is a little ping before the controller shorts out.

 

If I connect the power cable and plug in the power cab without connecting to the bus wires, the red light is on and the power cab is fine.

 

the wiring seems to be ok , I am using maplins xs73q bus wire, 20A, twin 75/0.19. The droppers are expo 18 strand/0.1 wires rather than the recommended 0.2 wire. are the droppers likely to be the problem? or is it more likely to be a polarity issue.

I have two scissors crossings both of which have a 3 way point entering at one side. I have no point motors connected as yet as there are 21 points. The track is n gauge code 55.

 

Any help appreciated, Wiring is not my strong point.

 

Thanks

 

Ken

[PaulCheffus]

Hi

 

I guess at some point you have either missed an insulated rail joiner or crossed the bus wires over.

 

When I am wiring I tend to wire a small part then test then wire the next part. This way I know where the error is a it will be in the last section I did.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Crosland]

The type of wire used (speaking generally, not yours specifically) can make shorts harder to detect if it's too high aresistance, but will not cause a short.

 

You have almost certainly crossed couple of droppers over somewhere or not isolated a point frog correctly.

 

The other classic is leaving conductive tools laying across the track

 

Andrew

[kensoul77]

Thanks guys, the plan was to wire a small part and test it but I got a bit giddy. I feel another day of stripping coming on.