Here is a little comparison or 20 gauge and 18 gauge wires. In our use,
every location is fed by at least 2- 20 gauge wires, one from each way around
the loop. The "ampacity " of a 20 gauge wire is about the
amount we need for our trains. Since we have two wires, I do not see where
we would have a problem. The track also carries some current. I am
not opposed to 18 gauge wire. I know that we already have an abundant
supply of 20 gauge that a member has purchased for others to buy as needed
because it is not a commonly available size.
Scott
Enter AWG:
Enter Temperature: [Degrees C]
Copper Area: [Circular
Mils]
Copper Area:
[Square Mils]
Copper Diameter: [Mils]
Resistance: [Ohms per Ft.]
Single Wire
Ampacity: [Amps]
Enter AWG:
Enter Temperature: [Degrees C]
Copper Area: [Circular
Mils]
Copper Area:
[Square Mils]
Copper Diameter: [Mils]
Resistance: [Ohms per Ft.]
Single Wire
Ampacity: [Amps
On Fri, 8 Feb 2002 09:39:04 -0600 "Steve Wise" < swise@aoot.com> writes:
I don't recommend using 20 gauge.
18 should be the minimum for track power.
Voltage loss isn't the only problem. A short or even a
lash-up pulling 5-7 amps could heat up smaller wires, right?
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, February 07,
2002 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: SAMRA and New
Ideas
There are several spools of the 20 gauge wire that we have used to date
that my Dad has purchased. With the clean plugs, we only had a small
voltage loss around the layout. Completing the loop as we do and the
jumper reduce even that. I do not think that we have a wire size
problem. My Dad is happy to sell the wire for cost and has all the
colors.
Scott
I like the 14 AWG stranded stuff. Sure, it is a
little more work to cut it to fit the jones plugs but it will have no
problem carrying whatever current we dish out in the future. If we
don't go with the 14 AWG we should still use stranded wire in whatever
gauge we decide upon for the reason that Ira mentioned.
For the setup test power how about modifying the harness
of the KW so that it could plug into the module harness anywhere.
That way regardless of where we start lashing up the layout we could have
the kw test power hooked up. I think we still have a few unused
jones plugs in the toolbox.
Ira Schneider wrote:
Make sure you use good wire for the new corner
modules.
The wire MUST follow the club's official color coding. That
means you need 9 different colored wires.
It would be much better to
use stranded wire instead of solid wire. Stranded wire is much
better for
AC applications and would be more flexible (and less
likely to break) for the ends which are bent and
unbent when
connecting the connectors. I would also suggest that we use a
minimum of 18 AWG wire
to minimize voltage loss.
All that being said, the club could purchase 9 spools of 18 AWG
stranded wire (either locally (I think
Fry's and Tinkertronics sells
spools of wire) or via mail order (less expensive)) in the appropriate
colors.
Alternatively, if we want to settle for solid wire, Home
Depot sells 10 conductor 18 AWG wire by the
foot as "sprinkler wire"
and as "thermostat wire". Another possibility is the 14 AWG
stranded wire
that Home Depot sells by the foot. The problem
with this wire is that it is too heavy to go into the
Jones plugs
unmodified - you have to trim the ends down to approximately 18 AWG size
with a wire
cutter. The advantage is that they do sell it in
all needed colors.
Also, I would strongly suggest that at least one of the new corner
modules be wired with two female
Jones plugs (4-pin and 6-pin) near
the front of the inside corner so we can connect the wiring harness
from the test transformer, like the Swamp corner module. That
way, if the Swamp module, which is
owned by Jim Smiley, is ever
taken out of service for a show we can still connect the test
transformer
during setup.
Ira
------
TTAT members reflector. ------ TTAT members
reflector.
This message has been 'sanitized'. This means that potentially
dangerous content has been rewritten or removed. The following log
describes which actions were taken.
Sanitizer (start="1013141614"):
Part (pos="1002"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.txt", mimetype="text/plain"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Part (pos="3849"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.html", mimetype="text/html"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META http-equiv=content-type content=text/html;charset=us-ascii_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META http-equiv=content-type content=text/html;charset=us-ascii_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"_<<
as: >>_BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr DEFANGED_style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"_<<
Total modifications so far: 3
Anomy 0.0.0 : sanitizer.pl $Id: Sanitizer.pm,v 1.25 2001/09/04
15:49:11 bre Exp $
|
This message has been 'sanitized'. This means that potentially
dangerous content has been rewritten or removed. The following log
describes which actions were taken.
Sanitizer (start="1013182746"):
Part (pos="927"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.txt", mimetype="text/plain"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Part (pos="5857"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.html", mimetype="text/html"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_STYLE_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_STYLE_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"_<<
as: >>_BLOCKQUOTE DEFANGED_style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
as: >>_DIV DEFANGED_style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"_<<
as: >>_DIV DEFANGED_style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
as: >>_DIV DEFANGED_style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
as: >>_DIV DEFANGED_style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
as: >>_DIV DEFANGED_style="FONT: 10pt arial"_<<
Total modifications so far: 9
Anomy 0.0.0 : sanitizer.pl $Id: Sanitizer.pm,v 1.25 2001/09/04
15:49:11 bre Exp $
|
| This message has been 'sanitized'. This means that potentially
dangerous content has been rewritten or removed. The following
log describes which actions were taken.
Sanitizer (start="1013221582"):
Part (pos="1002"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.txt", mimetype="text/plain"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Part (pos="8526"):
SanitizeFile (filename="unnamed.html", mimetype="text/html"):
Match (rule="2"):
Enforced policy: accept
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_META content="MSHTML 6.00.2712.300" name=GENERATOR_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_FORM_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_FORM_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_INPUT onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=awg_<<
as: >>_INPUT DEFANGED_Onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=awg_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_INPUT onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=temp_<<
as: >>_INPUT DEFANGED_Onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=temp_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_FORM_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_FORM_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_INPUT onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=18 name=awg_<<
as: >>_INPUT DEFANGED_Onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=18 name=awg_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_INPUT onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=temp_<<
as: >>_INPUT DEFANGED_Onchange=compute(this.form) size=5 value=20 name=temp_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_FORM_<<
as: >>_DEFANGED_FORM_<<
Rewrote HTML tag: >>_BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"_<<
as: >>_BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr DEFANGED_style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid"_<<
Total modifications so far: 10
Anomy 0.0.0 : sanitizer.pl
$Id: Sanitizer.pm,v 1.25 2001/09/04 15:49:11 bre Exp $
|
|