Crosland

It's not about pedantry, it's about understanding what LEDs are, and how they work. There's still no "right" resistor, only a compromise, even if you specify "model railways" as the application. What does "model railways" mean, anyway? LEDs for colour light signals, station lighting, loco lighting, or ...? The buyer has decided to provide a somewhat arbitrary (within a certain range) value resistor with his LEDs. It may, by chance, be "right" for your particular application but for someone else it could result in too bright or too dim an LED. It's a bit like buying a loco but letting the seller decide what scale they will supply. It will be perfect for some, not for others.

Talking more of mains wiring, but I believe in the UK any inaccessible mains connections must be soldered or crimped, not screwed [1], That implies soldering is OK. The cables should still be mechanically restrained. [1] No junction boxes buried in plaster. How many have found that little bodge after moving in to a house?

Now nominally 230V but, just to confuse things, the tolerances in the EU and UK are different, and asymmetrical. The +/-10% is the spec for equipment to work on the original (and unchanged!) 220 and 240V supplies https://www.leadsdirect.co.uk/knowledge-base/what-is-the-difference-between-uk-voltage-and-european-voltage/

Given what I have seen of what "professionals" are capable of, I would NEVER try touching the neutral

Your memory is failing you It's just under 9kHz.

After some more thought... There's no need for selecting an unchipped loco on speed zero since any and every DCC bitstream has zero DC bias. That's why an unchipped loco will sit stationary (maybe humming and slowly cooking) if placed on a DCC layout. The technique should work on any system. The trick seems to be taking the two measurements between the two rails and the 0V reference, rather than trying to measure the voltage directly across the rails.

Not quite. You set it for a DC loco with zero speed so there is NO DC bias. It then relies on the multimeter giving an average of the DCC voltage, which will be half of the track voltage. I'm still not convinced every "cheap" multimeter will give useable data.

The explanation of the requirement has always made sense. It's the requirement that does not fit with normal DCC practice.

Small suppliers are the ones who need every customer. Sadly, too many do themselves no favours. I am not pointing at Alan Gibson in particular, just read the other threads about "incommunicado" suppliers. Sadly, it's nothing to do with it being August. I speak as a small supplier who always tries to - answer the 'phone - respond to e-mail - set up an e-mail auto-response if there are going to be issues - put a note on the website front page if there are going to be issues - contact customers and offer a refund if there will be a significant delay in fulfilling an order - not take money for things that cannot be supplied Perhaps that could be the basis of the next "7 habits" book It really is not difficult.

Sorry, but that's EXACTLY what happens every time a loco crosses between booster power districts.

If the SPROG is damaged then it may be reporting a short circuit, regardless of the layout connections. Do you see the same behaviour if the SPROG is disconnected completely from the track? If so, return it to us for some attention. Be sure to check the website for our current address (as of a few months ago). Andrew

With respect, it's standard practice throughout industry, otherwise you rule out too many colours, which is used for mains wiring in some form or another. All mains wiring on/around a layout should be sheathed. There should NEVER be any unsheathed mains wiring anywhere near a layout, apart from within enclosures designed to house transformers, etc. If that simple rule is followed, there is no risk of confusion.

Why not? It's no different to any other wire. Solid is fine for a fixed layout and has the advantage that it's easier to "mould" to stay put. Stranded is preferable for anything that is going to be moved about a lot and subject to vibration.

I have not come across any decoder that the SPROG cannot program in quite a few years. Apart from the obvious tat didn't even support read back (they know who they are) all the "problem" decoders have been from well known brands.

It really depends on the current draw of the CDU when recharging. If it's designed to recharge quickly then it could be well over an amp for a short period. I would use separate supplies or make sure the supply chosen is over specified by a good margin, compared to what the controller needs worst case.

It's just a signal path, and is opto-isolated in the SBOOST. That means you do not nbeed to worry about a 0V reference between the SPROG and the SBOOST (I hope I didn't confuse thing more with that statement!). Whether or not PSUs have an earth pin depends on the power rating and the intended application. Above a certain power (65W comes to mind but I could be wrong) it's diffciult/expensive to implement the input filtering and meet EMC regulations so an earth connection is included. You can easily test this connect through to the 0V of the output with a continuity tester or multi-meter. Obviously do this when it's not plugged into the mains Our usual 12V PSUs are not earthed, our usual 15V supplies are earthed. At the moment (on-going post-covid supply disruptions) we are having to buy what PSUs we can get hold of. We are still buying from reputable, UK-based distributors, but I cannot promise whether they will be earthed or not.

I corrected your post

With a large layout it could get expensive providing a PSU for every module. If a 12V DC bus is used then the 0V is carrying the return current for all module attached to it. If individual PSUs are used then a thinner common could be used. The common connection between booster must never be skimped on as it is required to carry the full booster current.

WARNING the "12V DC" from the WM1 is not regulated or smoothed and is NOT 12V.

Power districts are DCC, nothing to Do with CBUS. DCC and CBUS are completely isolated except in a CBUS DCC command station such sad the MERG CANCMD.

That is just a diagram, it doesn't show any power connections at all. There is a technical Bulletin for CBUS wiring but you will need to be a member to see that. You need a common 0V between all CBUS modules.

The CBUS cable can also carry 12V power, or it can be supplied to each module locally. That's the +. The 0 is the common 0V and is required to be connected between all modules. You can still use them but they will not connect in any way to CBUS. JMRI allows multiple system connections so you could have different hardware for programming, running trains, layout control, ...

You can raise a dispute with PayPal, just as you can with a credit card. In my experience it's biased in favour of the buyer and you will probably get your money back.

If you are wiring your own LEDs (rather than using the ready made strip) then you can connect at least two LEDs in series across 12V, depending on the LED colour. Four or five red LEDs would work. The same current flows through all the LEDs so you still only need 10mA for each such series connection. You use a single, lower value, resistor so you also save on resistors and waste less power. We have two new products in the pipeline that have a connector for CBUS. This is a CAN bus based layout control bus that was developed by members of MERG. They have been delayed by post-pandemic component shortages, so I don't want to make too many promises (and don't want to do too much advertising on RMWeb). The R-Pi based 'Pi-SPROG 3 Plus' are being manufactured now and should be with us in a few weeks. For layout interfaces you will need to join MERG and build some of their kits, until we get our own in production, hopefully in the not too distant future. Some details are already on our website. To head off a couple of questions, CBUS is not compatible with Zimo's CAN bus, nor the NMRA's LCC/OpenLCB

Watch this space...or, rather, our website Andrew Crosland www.sprog-dcc.co.uk