Good Evening Group. I will be beginning my first 2 rail O scale DCC install shortly (a Red Caboose) GP9. I am going to use a Loksound Select L Decoder and will include sound. I am looking for wire gauge recommendations for the LED lights, the speaker and the wheel pickups and motor connections. Appears from information I have researched thus far that the motor/pickup wires should be a heavier gauge than the LEDs. ESU sells 36 gauge decoder wire however this appears to me to be a bit light for at least the motor/pickup connections. Comments?
Thanks,
Stephen
. Your choice of decoder is also a good one (very smooth motor control and great sound – provided you used a decent sized speaker and enclosure [make as air tight as possible for good bass]). For truck pickup feeder wires, #24 or #22 gauge stranded wire will suffice – I would lean towards #24 to not restrict truck movement. The Pittman can motors in those units do not draw a lot of current so #24 should be fine for the current handling needs over the short run between the truck and the decoder (even in the high current short circuit case). I would also recommend using flexible wire (more strand count for a given wire gauge) if you can find it. NWSL sells some real nice flexible stranded wired but the largest they stock is #28 gauge, so unfortunately that is a little too small for the larger O Scale needs. Maybe something is available on eBay but if you can’t find any, that is not the end of the world, regular stranded wired will do okay. 