Wiring Tip

[Dave Lunn]

Quick question for a Saturday morning.

 

In people's experiences, is there an easier/most effective way to connect 00 scale street lights, to the 12v power supply?

 

The wires are very thin and I am worried about breaking them or snapping off the end?

 

thanks,

 

Dave

[Madcaravanner]

Quick question for a Saturday morning.

 

In people's experiences, is there an easier/most effective way to connect 00 scale street lights, to the 12v power supply?

 

The wires are very thin and I am worried about breaking them or snapping off the end?

 

thanks,

 

Dave

 

I've not got this far yet on my layout but my plan is to run some thicker wiring under the board and solder the goods yard/street lights to this then run off to the ex PC power unit I have salvaged

[Huw Griffiths]

I've not got this far yet on my layout but my plan is to run some thicker wiring under the board and solder the goods yard/street lights to this then run off to the ex PC power unit I have salvaged

Although I've never wired model street lights or signals, I'd probably treat them both in a similar way, based on experience gained in my last job.

 

I needed to connect strain gauges to thick (colour coded) wires, going to dataloggers and other instruments. Sometimes, the gauges had fine wires pre-attached - sometimes, I needed to solder fine wires to the gauges.

 

These fine wires were then taken to solder terminals, close to the gauges - and soldered to the terminals with some slack between the gauges and the terminals. Further slack was added to the thicker wires going to the instrument.

 

To the other end of the terminals were soldered thicker wires, which went to the datalogger. The gauge installation, including the terminals, were then covered with varnish to stop moisture getting in.

 

If I were wiring model lamps or signals, I'd probably use a similar method:

 

• Fix the lamp or signal base where needed, with wires going through the baseboard.
• Some model streetlamps are supplied with plug-in bases and matching sockets, to be fitted to the baseboard. The sockets might be pre-wired, or you might need to neatly solder wires to the bases before going any further. Once you've taken care of this, it's time to move on to the next step.
• Fix a small piece of stripboard under the baseboard, near the lamp or signal base - possibly screwed in place, to allow repairs etc.
• Coil the lamp or signal wires around short lengths of small diameter plastic tube. (I know this will introduce a small amount of inductance into the wiring - but nowhere near enough to be a problem. In fact, I have seen signals supplied with coiled wires!) Don't fix the ends of the coils in place.
• Solder the lamp or signal wires to one end of the stripboard - ensuring the coils don't unravel - this should ensure a reasonable amount of slack.
• Now run thicker wires up to the other end of the stripboard (these wires should be colour coded for polarity) - and label these wires with the lamp or signal number. (These go to the power supply, switch etc.) Before connecting these wires, add a short half- loop (big enough to take a pencil) and fix the "wire" end of this loop.
• Now solder the free end of the loop to the stripboard.
• Neatly run the thick wires underneath the baseboard - clip the wires in place at regular intervals - remember to incorporate small amounts of slack into each "clip to clip" run. Once you get to the edge (or centre) of the baseboard, you might choose to run all the cables in a conduit to the power supply, "mimic panel", switches or whatever else you connect them to.
• You might also wish to add conduits for track power wiring, in the same way.
• Don't forget to label all the wires at this end (or at any joins due to breaks in the baseboard) when you install them.
• Also, don't forget to draw up a clear wiring diagram, complete with numbers (or other labels) for all wires, lamps, signals etc. This is to make it easier to identify what wire goes where, when you need to modify or repair anything. (It would be a good idea to use a drawing package on your computer; Windows Paint would be OK for this - a CAD package or something like Adobe Illustrator would be even better. My reason for saying this is that you want this diagram to be easy to read.)
• If you do make changes at a later date, don't forget to update your wiring diagram - this is where using a computer really helps, as you don't need to completely redraw everything.

Some people might see this as overkill. I'm not sure it is. I'm sure you'll need to repair or modify wiring (and other stuff) under baseboards - and it's often difficult to work out which wire goes where. I've also seen people get caught up in wires - when working under baseboards or when negotiating "duckunders". I'm trying to think of effective ways to eliminate these problems, based on my work experience.

 

I'm sure someone will have better ideas - I'd be interested to learn from them.

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[Donw]

Drinking straws can provide conduits for fine wires to protect them. Where they pass through the baseboard.

Donw

[Huw Griffiths]

Drinking straws can provide conduits for fine wires to protect them. Where they pass through the baseboard.

I suspect they would also work for short runs under the baseboard - say if LED lamps were to be connected in series, along a street.

 

They could be fixed to the underside of the baseboard using cable clips - probably held in place using screws (rather than nails - you might need to access the wires at a later date).

[Madcaravanner]

I suspect they would also work for short runs under the baseboard - say if LED lamps were to be connected in series, along a street.

 

They could be fixed to the underside of the baseboard using cable clips - probably held in place using screws (rather than nails - you might need to access the wires at a later date).

Slightly off the original topic BUT I am in the process of rewiring part of my layout in the loft since one of our 8 grand-kids took a handful of wire and pulled -- well he is just learning to walk and sticks to his big sister like glue and ALL the girls like Granddad's railway

so I am using a small profile cable gutter with clip on lid to channel the wires and protect them at the same time

 

This stuff

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/11665417/Cable_Canals_Trunking.jpg

[Huw Griffiths]

Slightly off the original topic BUT I am in the process of rewiring part of my layout in the loft since one of our 8 grand-kids took a handful of wire and pulled -- well he is just learning to walk and sticks to his big sister like glue and ALL the girls like Granddad's railway

so I am using a small profile cable gutter with clip on lid to channel the wires and protect them at the same time

This is the sort of stuff I had in mind - a slightly different shape to the stuff I've used, but the difference is of little consequence.

 

I'm not sure what this one's made of but, in the past, I've used rectangular section PVC for a number of wiring jobs (in work and at home) - it does the job.

 

You'll find that one edge of the stuff is obviously designed to fit to the board (perhaps one side is wider than the others and completely flat) - you need to ensure it's fixed firmly and straight (it sometimes wants to twist).

 

I know some trunking strips are supplied with double sided sticky tape on one edge - if this is the case, this gives you which side goes to the board, but little else. I've never found these tapes much good for holding trunk - quite often, they don't even stick properly when you press them down! Saying that, they might keep the stuff roughly in place long enough for you to add the real fixings. Adhesives sometimes fail after a while under stress, so you're probably best using screws or nails when fixing trunk to the board. I've been known to pass these screws through cable tie bases, so the cables can be tied down at the same place.

 

When it comes to breaking in to the trunk to make connections, you've got 2 basic choices (both of which work):

 

• Leaving short gaps between sections of trunk.
• Cutting small slots in the side of the trunk.

Which you do is a matter of personal preference - I'd probably use slots (possibly also shaped junction pieces and another strip of trunk, if lots of wires need to come through).

 

I agree - it's good stuff - and it dramatically improves safety - even if it's sometimes a bit awkward to fit.

 

Regards,

 

Huw.

[HLT 0109]

Quick question for a Saturday morning.

 

In people's experiences, is there an easier/most effective way to connect 00 scale street lights, to the 12v power supply?

 

The wires are very thin and I am worried about breaking them or snapping off the end?

 

thanks,

 

Dave

 

Dave,

 

I have been through your thought process and have successfully wired 23 lights so far using only 1.0mm wire. Some of those lights are eleven feet as the crow flies (the wires are longer) from the transformer and I have had no problems. Although the wires are very thin, they are actually quite strong. In fact they are thicker than those used by Hornby on their point motors and I have over 40 of those using the same extension wire, some of which is used in 12 ft lengths to connect two points working together. I have soldered additional wire to the tails supplied with the lights and then used ordinary connecting blocks (screw type) to connect the different lights (ie those relating to each structure are soldered together but attached to those on other structures by connecting blocks) which makes it easy to remove each structure if necessary. A common neutral wire is then run from the control panel to a convenient point and a live wire is run from each switch on the control pannel to each structure (or collection of structures) so you can see that I already have quite a lot of thin wiring. I expect to have many more light in due course - if I get problems with the commen neutral for example it can easliy be replaced with a thicker wire at that time. Incidentally, my lights are incandescent, not LED.

 

Harold.