Here are some additional pictures

The drawer pulls almost entirely away from the layout to ensure there is no problem wiring or tracing wiring. I think the power to the boosters will run along the bottom side of the drawer and the power to the track will run along the top of the drawer. This will maintain a very clean look and diffuse any confusion with the wiring. 

As you can see, the drawer sticks out just a little from the edge of the layout. I am not sure that I like this just yet, but it is growing on me. The important thing is that the Digitrax boxes are fairly protected under the future layout and scenery. 

The important thing is that

As long as you don't have glue drop down on them when you're working on scenery... don't ask me how I know!

Now we know why the Texas grid failed!

Kirk turned on his layout.

Blind Dog

That's just funny !!!

I wish we had those emoticons for posts ! That is a funny comment. I had to move from Texas to Indiana 15 years ago because I knew it would be a problem. 

It would be nice if I really could estimate how much power I am going to need. I have three levels that are essentially an out and back run for a total of 85' or so on each level. There are switching opportunities on each level. On the staging yard level, there is a large engine facility. There are two helicies one moves the layout from staging to Level 1. The other one moves Level 1 to Level 2. There will be a coal branch and a small shortline. My guess is that I can keep 4 boosters busy at peak operations, but that is just a guess. 

Does anyone use a punchdown block for loconet?

I was thinking about using a punchdown block for the loconet on this shelf. Essentially, I would just tie all the boosters together on the shelf and have one 6P6C wire between the shelf and the layout. It seems logical that would reduce the chance of errors and failure points, right?

Power Requirements

I have 4 boosters powering my entire layout, 1600 square feet, double deck, 40+ locos.  I lined the boosters up on a shelf with a good size air gap behind them, transformers on top, and a large terminal strip (that I am not proud of, but will show anyway) to the left.  The shelf also includes my programmers, Digitrax and ESU and a piece of track, with a connected laptop below.

I question the punchdown, as it brings to mind fairly light wires.  At the boosters and to the layout, the wires are 14 gauge THHN stranded.

You are right, it is a bit of a mess to have all the terminals in front. But it is sometimes convenient as well when troubleshooting.

@MIlt,

I think the punchdown question was in regards to the 'loconet' cables, 6 wire data style RJ12 connections.  No major current.

@Kirk, punchdowns are a great solution if you can find RJ12 6 wire cables with SOLID wire, not stranded or foil.  All 3 do exist, but it's hard to determine from most product descriptions just what you're getting.  

Here's my take on the tray, and the punchdown idea.

If you've planned out your booster and loconet networks, the punchdown shouldn't be needed.

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/throttle.htm

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/booster.htm

And one on booster locations:

http://www.wiringfordcc.com/booster.htm#a7

Is there a sketch of your layout available here?  I'd like to know why you're centralizing your whole installation; same with Milt, I guess.

Blair

My loconet was step one.

So, I went through my home networking box. I have distributive wiring in my home and as such, I had purchased some telco punchdowns a long time ago. They were bought on clearance with the idea that I would get around to using them. Funny, I thought it would be for things like fax machine  and wired telephones, not model trains.  I mean, really, who uses wired telephones and fax machines and similar stuff anymore?

This particular punchdown was brand new and had no fancy circuits. It is simply a linear punchdown. As you can see from the picture. Before we go on, look at the 6P6C wiring on the punchdown block. Yes, I used just a touch of hot glue to give the wires just a little more stability and resistance to getting pulled. Network engineers, just look away. I know it's not necessary, I just wanna run trains and not spend time trying to track down loconet problems. 

This picture just shows how I punched down the 6P6C wires. I made sure it was consistent through all connections. Please excuse the trim job. I actually have a professional punchdown tool that makes quick work of trimming these. You can see that in the next photo, sort of...

This is just the top of the punchdown. I'm gonna try and get away with using just a command station and 3 additional boosters. I think it will be plenty. Of course, I do like multiple unit consists, so we'll see. 

Milt expressed some concern over the punchdowns and light wire, but I am going to try them. I mean, it's either those or a bunch of RJ12 plugs and sockets.  I think the punchdown will work. This is just for the Loconet. As you can see, there are wires for four Digitrax units. At the bottom of the picture is the wire that will head off of the control shelf and onto the layout. The beauty of the punchdown is the expansion potential. 

Hey Milt, we have similar ideas !!!

That is a crap load of

That is a crap load of command stations and boosters.  I was asking advice a few months ago for my semi large layout with 11 track staging yard, and was told one command station might be enough, at most a single add on booster.  You must be planning on a HUGE layout.

Okay, so that's

a more recent version of a punchdown block than the old telco varieties, where the metal strip the wires were punched into was the only metal in the unit.  E.g. all blue wires into one strip, all yellow into the next, etc.  That would be a real mess.  You've got a much better solution there.  I still don't like it, because it's not as flexible as pluggable solutions, but if it works for you, go for it.

Blair

This is what I thought of

Spent way too much time with these fellas, a long time ago.  The image is from a commercial vendor, still selling them.

Blair

Onto the shelf layout

I was originally going to spread boosters out along the layout. One issue I faced was having boosters sit underneath a multi-deck layout and the overall visual appearance. It seemed like many people centralize their boosters and simply run a buss to breakers and then to feeders. 

It took me a long time to think about this and I just finally pulled the trigger. I don't think it is necessarily the best way, it is just the way I chose. I think it is just going to be easier for any troubleshooting or powering of the layout. My layout is 24 x 23 with a helix in an unfinished portion of the basement. 

The hardest part is securing the boosters to the layout. Digitrax never built anything into the case to allow for securement. So, I have to come up with that one. I think I might drill a hole and use a nylon bolt to secure the booster to the layout, ensuring there is no shorting that could occur. 

I will only use one loconet port on each booster. I could have daisy chained them together, but I would lose some modular flexibility should I need to replace a unit. The way I have designed it, the layout would still run in 3 out of 4 districts should I need to send a booster or the command station in for repair. 

Here, I am just showing how I ran the Telco cabling. It looks like Milt and I have the same cable management devices !

This is where I scewed up just a tiny bit. I decided to try running the layout with just four units. I think it is going to work just fine. If I need to add a booster, I will need to run the Telco cabling slightly different to connect them. It's really no big deal. 

As you can see, the loconet cable that goes to the layout runs below the shelf and onto the layout. 

Here is the bottom of the shelf with just one lone cable serviing as the connection to the loconet on the layout. I hope this works ! I don't see any reason why it wouldn't?

punchdown size

Blair, how many conductors does that block have? I think it is only for two circuits. 

Any network engineers care to chime in? I am really not sure of the proper way to wire these things. 

Mine is color coded for the 8 wires in a Cat cable. Those are:

Blue and Blue/white

Green and Green/white

Orange and Orange/white

Brown and Brown/white

I needed 6 conductors and although my colors do not match, they are all essentially wired together because I kept the colors straight. 

The wire I used is solid and was just cheap stuff I found at the thrift store for a dollar or two. I do not know the exact size of the wire, but the digital packets are fairly "tiny" and should go a long way on these wires. 

Securing boosters,

I just drilled a hole in my mounting board on each side, ran a couple of zip ties around it.  pulled up nice and tight, it's not going anywhere.

Yep, you're going at it your own way.  Too far along to change horses now, I just hope the distances involved don't bite you.

Blair

Kirk

It's a 50x4 - allows 4 wires to be tied together, times 50 circuits.  It's a distribution block in an office tower.  A 50-pair bundle would come in and be tied to two of these, and 50 phone circuits would fan out from the closet.  There were also 6, and I think 8, tie versions.  Very much 50's era telco.

Not sure where that comment is going, the concern is wire fragility and connector acceptance, not electron flow.  That's an ethernet-style punchdown, so it'll accept most of the small gauges you'll throw at it.

Have fun!

Blair

Hey, I have enough German in me that my head is pretty hard.

Yep. Sorry guys! 

Like I said, I have thought about this for a long time. As Blair points out, I have lost a little flexibility, but I think it will be just fine. My way is just one of many correct ways. 

I have two UR90s and a UR92 and a whole bunch of UP5s. Yes, I even have DT100s that still work and are still used. 

Blair had mentioned something about the distance around the layout. I think in both scenarios, I can run from this central distribution in either direction and not have a run of loconet or 12 ga. power buss that is more than 50 feet. Everything I have read seems to indicate that is well within acceptable operating range. 

Jim, I was accused of causing the Texas power grid to fail and I probably earned that. I have described my layout and will probably not need much more than the two 8 amp units. I do have plenty of sound units. My goal would be to have resistored wheels and lighted passenger cars. Everything adds up and if you wanna just sit there and calculate "what if's" I could probably figure out exactly what I need. I only bought my DCS100 brand new. Everything else is someone else's used equipment. I'm okay with used, but someone beat the hell out of one of the DB150s. I mean it is ugly. Oh well, it works. 

I suppose boosters distributed around the layout versus centralized is also a preference? I just went with centralized because I want to keep everything together. 

@Kirk,

Apologies.  I failed to note this was a blog, not a topic.  Feedback is unneeded in a blog, the water's already downstream.

Gotta pay more attention to that!

Blair

CS / Booster Setup

FWIW thought I'd share my set up.

I'm using older PowerShields as my circuit protection and wanted it all centralized on my last layout.  I decided to re-use as is on my current layout despite the fact that if i was starting from scratch I'd probably distribute these around the layout a bit.

Hmm.  The layout I am

Hmm.  The layout I am building is 1 1/2 decks, 14 staging tracks and 15x33 feet and seeing as you have 6 boosters, I'm wondering if the advice I got in the below topic suggesting I would only need one, maybe two boosters was incorrect since you have 6!

https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/38407

Booster placement

Instead of mounting them all in one spot I prefer to put each one at the area of the layout it will power. This allows the shorterst possible bus wire run so saves effort and complication under the layout. The loconet cables connecting the booster to the command station are much smaller and easy to run and are not really affected by the length of run like bus wires are. Mounting the boosters around the room requires wall power access at each booster which might be a problem in some rooms. On my present layout I used a Digikeijs booster instead and found it quite easy to mount as it has screw holes to attach it to the benchwork ....DaveB

Agree with Daves comments

Re distribution, but topology and expected loads are important factors; theres no magic formula, and we hope the owner has thunk it thru.  In my case, there are 4 logical points for power distribution, so I've been planning for that since the plan first took shape.

Blair

8 amps and protecting your equipment

Joe, good point...

Maybe I don't want to use the 8 amp units? I didn't even really think about that. I was going to use plenty of circuit breakers and make multiple power districts for each booster. 

I guess I am thinking wrong on that. I was assuming it would just run much more layout. I guess the circuit breakers on each power district can be set much lower than what the booster is capable of producing. 

Jim, I am going to use four, not six I may not even need that many. I just do not want to have problems with not having enough power. 

If you already have them ...

If you already have them you might as well use them, but just make sure all layout sub-block feeds from these 8 amp boosters go through a DCC circuit breaker set to something lower like 3 amps. Don't feed anything on the layout unprotected directly from an 8 amp booster for HO. A dead short on an 8 amp feed will do real damage very quickly in HO.