DCC wiring and droppers - any tips?

[potatan]

Mod note. Topic moved to the DCC forum where it should get more appropriate views and comments

I'm planning my wiring layout because I've just realised that I'll need to have it planned before gluing the track down - even with Copydex. (Edit: I'm only concerned with DCC power at the moment, not signals or points etc.)

Various DCC advice calls for a dropper for each straight. Whilst I think this is probably more than I need for a small layout of 1300x750mm I've just bought a new soldering iron so I may as well get some practice in. I intend putting droppers to each piece of track that is longer than about 100mm (including on the curves) - 32 dropper pairs in total. Am I being over cautious?

The diagram shows the track with one big Bus cable (coloured blue) to run around the layout from the PowerCab control panel on the left and lots of droppers coming off it (red). In reality each wire will of course be a twisted pair, and I will match up all the +ve and -ve rails appropriately. The Bus wire will be higher capacity than the droppers.

Has anyone used the DCC Concepts Tags? I have read good reports : https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/bus ... s-50-pack/

My concern is that as this is my first layout I may want to adjust or add to it. I have some connection strips that I was going to use - similar to these: https://www.screwfix.com/p/essentials-3 ... pack/25545 - but I'm not certain of the best way to go about using them in a DCC Bus manner. I'm sure there are some fancier solutions out there too.

All comments welcome as usual

Bonus progress pic. I've begun to lay the cork for the track and have glued a few bits down. The track is not glued in place, I was just checking my geometry was still up to scratch

[aleopardstail]

every track is not bad practice, likely overkill for a small N gauge layout though, but it won't hurt (except the time it will take to do it)

with this many, and such a small layout I would be tempted to order some PCB stripboard, and solder the dropper wires directly to it instead of screw terminals (for this many it will be a lot cheaper)

also found having the bus under the tracks is decent, basically because you won't be drilling down where the rails are, for a layout this side though a single bus up the central spine, then all droppers to that - have a few lengths of PCB with bus between them, then just solder to it where needed

don't get hung up on twisted pair, for wire runs this long you won't need it

note on pcb strip and soldered, this is cheap, if you change the layout cut the wires and start again..

[potatan]

every track is not bad practice

I've just realised I may be thinking like a flexitrack man rather than setrack, where "power to every track" might not be quite such an undertaking, what with flexi bits being up to 1m long.

with this many, and such a small layout I would be tempted to order some PCB stripboard, and solder the dropper wires directly to it instead of screw terminals (for this many it will be a lot cheaper)

Oooh hadn't thought of this, will investigate thanks. Now I just need to remember my college training from 45 years ago so I don't start lifting the copper strips by putting too much heat on them.

[Dad-1]

Droppers everywhere - A self imposed rule that I decided to break
on Chalkhill due to it being made with set-track and it would involve
multiple soldered droppers.
REGRET, regret, I should have known better !! occasional, random loss
of power along a couple of my sidings.
I also have a 4 foot test track passed to me by my old buddy Derek, again
set-track straights. I thought I had awful decoder problems, but in the
end it turned out to be a random failure of a rail joiner ( now bridged by
soldering a length of fuse wire across the join. It could easily begin again
at another join.
Every separate piece of track should have it's own power source. I even
do that on small fillers of only 4, or 5 sleepers in length.

With so many droppers a finer wire can be used between Bus & Rail.

Geoff T.

[centenary]

I use a combination of these for the bus and droppers. Droppers are soldered to the track at one end!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089Y6JP8P/ ... _lig_pi_dp

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09WKNXLHW/ ... AV2HHNP32Y

[potatan]

I use a combination of these for the bus and droppers. Droppers are soldered to the track at one end!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B089Y6JP8P/ ... _lig_pi_dp

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09WKNXLHW/ ... AV2HHNP32Y

I like the elegance of this kind of solution

[RAF96]

The important thing is check as you go along. Picking up a cross dropper now will be much easier than after it is all finished and shorting.
My method deploys a buzzer in series with a 9 volt battery clipped across the rails. If you cross a connection the buzzer will sound in warning, allowing you to correct the problem. If you have anything in the circuit even a single led as found on some distribution boards or a bus terminator then they will give a false alarm, so disconnect them for now.
For Teeing in the droppers Wago and others do lever type Tee connectors, which seem better than the usual insulation displacement crimp on type used on cars.