Hello, I was thinking of using "terminal block/strips". I never used it and my knowledge about it is at minimum. All I know about it is that it needs some jumpers. I was at Home Depot the other day looking at terminal blocks. The sales person introduce me to something called "Ground Bar" which looks a little bit like terminal blocks but it does not need require jumpers. You put the bus wire on one of the holes and then you can use the other holes for the feeders. It comes in many sizes and is much cheaper than terminal blocks. Please shed some light on how to use terminal blocks and let me know if using "Ground bar" would be a good idea. Thanks. Mo
Mo, The problem with a typical ground bar is that it is typically not insulated. The grounding plate is open. You don't want to be passing current through an uninsulated plate. Tying to ground is fine. Think of the wiring in a home, in many cases the grounding wire is bare, but you always insulate the current carrying wires. Rick
Can you post a picture? Are you using it for house current or train control current? You might try using if you think you can protect it with clear plastic to keep stray fingers away
I'm unfamiliar with the terminology "ground bar" and know nothing about it, but I thought I might share with you a product I ran onto in a local electrical supply store. Very inexpensive! These are manufactured by a company called Wago and is part # 0862-1505. No screws are used all wires are secured by some sort of spring pressure or other sort of tension induced pressure (very strong by the way) I use as source for track feeders from secondary power block in my DCC wiring. Their web site has all the specs on this and other similar items. http://www.wagocatalog.com/okv3/index_body.asp?strBestNrID=8621505&strBestNrID_gegen=8621505&strBestNr=862-1505&strBestNr_gegen=862-1505&sql=&strCurPos=&curpage=1&lid=5&cid=51&str_from=a&strPic=d0862-0005.jpg&strE_out=30002&strSort=No&strSort_Pic_No_Temp=1&strSort_Pic_Text_Temp=0&strLiefertermin=&bRohs=
A grounding bar would work fine for hooking one side of the rail buss to and then dropping feeders to it. On a small layout you would need two of them, one for north and one for south buss. It would also work well for the common twin coil switch motors...the common back wires from all motors could go to the bar and it would then go to one side of AC... then you would only run two wires back to the push bottons or toggles.
I've been looking for exactly this type of connector. Never thought about the ground bus from an electrical panel, didn't know you could buy them separately. For connecting rail bus wires these would be great and no need to worry about covering/insulating them as the current is too small.
You guys are right, current really isn't a big problem, but random shorting could be. If your wiring under the table isn't insulated, that can be one other place to look for shorts. I guess I'm just old fashioned enough with electrical circuitry not to want to have a "hot" bar (even if the tracks are hot).
Yea, verily! A misplaced, or accidentally knocked over, metal object could be your worst nightmare with 2 uninsulated bus bars near each other. Actually, any form of bussing connections is ok as long as you think of potential shorts iin your placement of the devices. Make it IMPOSSIBLE for shorting to happen. I make my own bus bars. A piece of brass sheet cut to fit over a block of hard plastic scrap. I drill holes thru the brass and plastic after super-gluing the 2 together. I then tap the holes and use Allen wrench head screws for the wire connection. About fifty cents of material and 1/2 hour time for a 20 position bus bar that is designed to fit where I need it to fit.
Here is a web site for copper ground bars. http://store.electrical-insulators-and-copper-ground-bars.com/ground-bar-kits.html
Mo, go for it. Place them sufficiently apart in a position where they are easy to work on but not normally accessed, like under the layout in a vertical position so nothing can lay on top of both. Wago terminals are very good but are a pain in the rear to use. I prefer a screw terminal with a pin or blade lug.
with the ground bar you could always hook up the wires then spray with rubber undercoating or electric tape just a thought
I don't understand that at all. No post to bend a wire around, no screw to tighten. Push a button and slip the wire in a slot. How much easier can it get?
Rick, I assume you have used them. These have started appearing in signalling equipment I work on and without the correct tool to operate these, it's painful. Mind the equipment isn't supplied with the said tool. A small screwdriver will suffice but personally I find it more miss than hit in operating these. YMMV. No wires bent around screws here - clamp terminals with the correct dual grip lug crimped to the (multistrand) wire. Even the wires going into Wego terminals is in a bootlace ferrule. Solid core is not used.
Yes Gary, I have used them. The photo I posted is the entirety of the product I'm referring to. I usually push one of the "buttons" (for lack of the proprietary name) with my thumb. I've got 22 ga. track feeders going into most of the slots and solid 14 ga. jumpers for power feeds. I have no idea what you're referring to with some of your comments like "Mind the equipment isn't supplied with the said tool. A small screwdriver will suffice but personally I find it more miss than hit in operating these. YMMV. No wires bent around screws here - clamp terminals with the correct dual grip lug crimped to the (multistrand) wire. Even the wires going into Wego terminals is in a bootlace ferrule. Solid core is not used."
Now you mentioned it, yes I can see the rocker arrangement for operating the clamps. The image you posted appears to be a connector used for 3-phase power. The Wago terminals I am referring to are DIN rail mounted generally used on processing equipment boards, etc and are 4-10mm wide. These types do require a tool to be put in a hole to operate the clamp, as seen in one of the images of the link above. As for the lugs, etc., it's a standard I need to work to here, and one I carry over to wiring the MR (since I get all the materials for, umm, a good price let's say...). Dual grip lugs crimp both the wire and insulation. Bootlace ferrules look just the plastic ends on your bootlaces, except they are a metal barrel and have a belled plastic end to provide support for the insulation (refer to above link, image at bottom of second page). The wire is stripped and crimped within the barrel and any excess cut off the end of the barrel.
Hey guys, I was at Home Depot the other day and found these: They come in 5 hole, 4 hole, 3 hole and 2 hole sizes. The 5 hole is $1.99 and are 10 cents less than that as you drop in hole size. They come 10 to a pack. So that gives you 50 possible connections. They fit wire sizes of 14-22 awg. They are a push-in-place so this makes removing the wires a bit hard (but can be done). I've started using them on my layout, and so far they are working great. For a positive/negative connection, you have to use 2 of them. I mounted them with double sided sticky tape. Main buss line in and out and feeders coming in. Just thought I'd add this to the list. -Mike
