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Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:46 pm
by John Bateson
Hi,
I have a few tender engines in which I am adding electrical pickups to supplement those in the engine. The connection will be by something like the Express Models 2-pin micro connector.
Is there any recognised convention as to whether the engine or the tender gets the plug part of this connection?

A complication arises when or if I decide to add those loco lamps at the rear (DCC Concepts?) wired in from one of the Function circuits of the decoder (NCE). In this case how do we differentiate between the two connectors to avoid expensive mistakes - colour coded blobs of paint? or do we simply make the decoder function the plug on the engine and the pickup the socket on the engine?

I suppose when finished we lable all those dangly bits as water and vacuum feeds.
John

Re: Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 4:14 pm
by LesGros
Hi John,
I am not an expert, but I have observed that power supply connections always have the socket at the source side; so the power socket should be on the tender. If the same logic is applied to Tender Lamps/Leds, then you should have the lamp supply plug on the tender and the socket on the loco. Ident problem solved and Impossible to make wrong connection. No special marking would be required and the plugs are not live when disconnected, therefore there is less risk of a short circuit from a plug touching the bodywork.

Re: Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 4:37 pm
by Alan Turner
Not that it really maters with 12v but good practice is that the source of the power has the socket and the user of the power has the plug.

Alan

Re: Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:19 pm
by David Thorpe
John Bateson wrote:The connection will be by something like the Express Models 2-pin micro connector.

I've just been looking for something like that - thanks!

David.

Re: Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 9:32 pm
by John Bateson
Alan,
The problem is that with both engine and tender they are both power sources.
So is the convention to have the socket in the engine?
John

Re: Wiring convention

Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 10:24 pm
by LesGros
John Bateson wrote:Alan,
The problem is that with both engine and tender they are both power sources.
So is the convention to have the socket in the engine?
John



The point I was making was that in each circuit the source has the socket. The situation is clear for the lamps circuit - socket goes on whichever unit has the decoder. It occurs to me that with pickups on both loco and tender then a different type connector would be required to avoid risking short circuits. It is the sort of 2-way connector which has a pin for one wire, and a socket for the other. When wired correctly it is impossible to make a wrong-way-round connection. Maplin (http://www.maplin.co.uk) do at least one, but I am not sure if there is a version small enough for your purpose. You also could try RSonline ( http://www.rswww.com). It may be the sort of thing that DCC Supplies have available. Hope that helps.