Actually, I haven't had any problems ... no runaway locos, no messed up
DCC signals. I was simply wondering whether taping wires together might
serve as a substitute for twisting. I have far too many existing
feeders to make it worthwhile to change out the existing bus for
twisted wire.
In any event thank you all for your responses.
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On Wed, 2021-08-04 at 18:43 +0000, JoAnn Donaldson via groups.io wrote:
You can make your own twisted cable. Take 50ft of Black and Red wire.
Make a knot and secure on end in an vise. Make a knot in the other
end. place knot in Hand drill. run drill until desired twist. Then
pull on the twisted pair. Pull hard. It make stretch a tag but that
is OK. Reason for this is if you let the twisted pair go, the wire
will bundle up into a mess.
JoAnn
AB8YZ
?On Wednesday, August 4, 2021, 10:28:01 AM CDT, Jim Betz
<jimbetz@...> wrote:
Bill,
? Your bus wires should -either- be twisted or well separated.? The
worst thing you can do is to tape them together without twisting
them.
? What happens is that the wires will create an RF signal that
interferes
with the DCC signal (causes noise).? Interference usually shows up as
"I don't have my train - wait, now I have it back (after it has moved
a
few feet) - now I don't have it again."? "Don't have" is when the
train
does not respond to changes in the throttle - such as you blow the
horn or change speed and the train doesn't respond or has a long
delay.
? There can be other things that will interfere with the connection
between the cab(s) and the train(s).? What DCC system?? How
old is it?? Have you always had this problem or is it new?? Does
plugging in the cab fix it?? Always or only usually or only in some
parts of the layout?
? If you are not having trouble - just leave well enough alone.? If
you
are having trouble you might consider attempting to separate them
as far as they can be made and see if that helps.
? If separating the bus wires doesn't work the regrettable fix is to
get them twisted.? Doing that -can- be a big job or it can be a
fairly easy job.? Have you heard of/seen the Wago 221 connectors?
? As I said before - there are other symptoms/causes.? Provide the
answers to the questions above and we can sort out what you?
should do next (if you are having trouble).? The most important
thing you can do for us now is to tell us "why you think you want
to change anything?" -and- provide a fairly accurate description of
the problems you are having (where they occur, what fixes them,
etc.).
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? - Jim
