Looks logical

Should be easy to track down any shorts.

Not sure how it will be with the BDL16s, but with the BD4's, my PSX-AR shows "occupancy" at all times. Currently trolling through google to find a work-around, but so far, it seems I have to dedicate all four zones of a BD to the reversing track. (and it's only about 8' long).

Hopefully will be easy...

John,

Not sure about the BD4's my layout is all BDL's.  The only thing I can think of is have you got the PSX-AR before or after the BD4?

I know that the BDL's need to be after the PSX-AR's or PSX-1's.  I haven't wired in my section of track for detection that is served by one of the AR's.

Jas...

yes... that is it

The PSX needs to be before the BD, otherwise the BD will "pick-up" the PSX as an "occupier" (happening now).

I'm thinking the best way to go will be to get another SE8c and two BD's... I can use four zones for my currently "dark" outer loops (a good thing when I start signal programming) and two zones on the reverse track. Still mulling this over 

Edit: Yes, everything I've found said that all four zones (if used) need to be within the reverse loop.

Re-wiring for Power Districts...

Over the past week I have been back under the layout working on wiring yet again...  Urrgghh!

This time around it was because I was moving towards setting up power districts that were being protected by DCC Specialties PSX1's.

Over the past couple of operating sessions we had noticed that Rutherford Yard was dropping out the remainder of the layout when a short occurred.  I already had two PSX1's installed along with two PSX-AR (auto reversers).

The first set was to completely replace the main buss, this had been altered quite a few times and was not consistently sized along the whole layout.  I replaced it with 10 awg (2.5mm) house flex with sub busses being 14 awg (1.5mm) and the feeders still the same 18 awg (1mm) solid core.

The replacement went relatively easy, and with a little attention to neatness and pulling out quite a few feet of unneeded wire I ended up with 5 main buss runs.

I've made Rutherford Yard, Rutherford Workshops and the centre peninsula separate buss runs.

The next stage was installing the remaining PSX1's and the two packets of isolated rail joiners.  I had a few sneak paths on the common return so had to track these down to ensure each power district was isolated.

Each BDL168 is fed from a PSX1 to ensure all the detected as well as non-detected track work is protected.  You can see the wiring block to the right of the PSX1, this feeds the BDL below and the remaining undetected blocks for the Pulp & Paper Mill.  The PSX below has the main buss feeding through the board (two pair of wires on the left) via the four pin block.

The remaining install went well and I managed to neaten up a fair portion of the layouts wiring too, the remaining PSX-AR (auto-reversers) didn't require any further work and have been working perfectly since installed over two years ago...

Jas...

Nice work...

Jas. Your wiring is neatly routed and clearly marked. Which, as you know, makes trouble shooting much easier.  It seems as hard as I try my wiring doesn't end up as neatly as I envisioned.    John

PS-X tweaking

It  would be nice to see a video tutorial or a nice written up blog post about tweaking those PS – X block protectors.  I have a PS-X 4 section detector/protection device, but when one section shorts out, it still knocks out entire layout.  The device shows me which section the short is in, but the rest of the layout should continue to operate.