How to wire for multiple Ross Custom Switches to 1 switchboard

Depends on how neat you are ? The  DZ-1000s are a bit more complicated that the DZ-2500Cs.

Each machine needs a power(red) and ground(black) lead,  you can wire to the Z-4000. I wire mine to a separate power source. If you are using track to activate the non-derailing all transformers  must be phased.

I run the two wires beneath the layout that I can tap power and ground to the switch machines. That leaves the control wire; each machine must be separately wired back to your switch machine controller anyway. So there those who just use 3 conductor phone cable to wire all three wires to power/ground and to the controller.

I wired my DZ-2500's with #23 wire (CAT6 Cable), with home runs back to the main power/control panel.  They all terminate in the punch-down blocks at my distribution panel.  This makes it easy to wire controls to them.  In my case, I'm controlling all the switches using the TMCC/Legacy remotes.

Thank you

Richard:

All the switch motors need power and ground connections. Power goes straight to the center post of the DZ-1000 machine. The green and yellow wires will go the a DPDT momentary toggle switch or in the case of John and others to a Legacy or MTH switch box (I know nothing about these). The center of the toggle switch is connected to ground.

So this means in general separate runs to every switch machine. You can clean this up a little by:
1. run a single power wire to a terminal then branching out to each machine. I have never tried this but I guess you could also run a single power wire around your layout as a buss wire and connect off it to the individual machines.
2. run a single ground wire to your switch board and connect it from each toggle switch to the next
3. the only true separate wires will be the green and yellow which must run from each switch machine to the respective toggle switch terminal lug. If you operate two turnouts in tandem say for a double ended siding you can run the green/yellow from one machine to the next then to the switchboard.

If down the road you will want to add indicator lights or something else at the turnout that is toggled by the switch motor position you will need to connect a DZ-1008 relay to the switch machine. This will mean adding another ground wire from the same transformer to the switch machine. Under every turnout I have four European style terminals. One each for power(red), ground (black), green and yellow. This arrangement makes add on connections to the switch motor that much easier.

A side note - all my transformers (track, switch motors, signals, ITADS) except the DC power supply for lights have common  ground (ie ground form each transformer is connected to a wire terminal at the control board then branched out around the layout. This way it does not matter which ground terminal I connect to since they are all the same.

Joe

Thank you very much.

This helps me a great deal. I can now move ahead with some confidence in wiring my layout.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond my question.

Richard