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Guys, I am building a modular layout and am using dcs tiu and legacy via the legacy cable. I currently use two mth terminal blocks. One for each 4' by6' layout section. The power feeds are star wired to the track from there. The terminal blocks then get wired to the tiu outputs for fixed one and fixed two.My question is if And when I make the layout larger I would like to add power buses around the layout. Each moduals buse wires would be connected to each other via standard molex connectors. I know legacy/tmcc would be ok for this type of wiring. How would dcs act if I hooked the terminal blocks to each power bus. I want to make the layout modular so it can be moved and not be torn down. I have spent lots of money on building a large layout before and had to lose a lot of it when tearing it all  down. I am planning very carefully with this one so if I have to move it can be dismantled and re set up. Somewhat  like how tw designs layouts are made. Thanks for the input!
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Clubs with modular layouts have managed to get DCS to work on Buss wired setups.

Add an engineered filter to each power drop, on drop per module. Isolate modules from each other to make each one a block.

 

Star wiring from terminal blocks is also doable, the wiring can actually follow the modules around but this makes some wiring quite a bit longer. You will just have long lengths of wire to coil up and move with each module.

Russel, if i have say a 180 watt brick going through fixed channel one on the tiu. Then the output connected to a hot and com 16 gauge power bus following the moduls underneath. Then use mth terminal blocks with wires going to the track feeders home run style on each modual. Then connect the the terminal blocks to the 16 gauge power bus. Wouldn't this be ok. I could isolate the modules where needed to form power districts.I want to have four 16 gauge power buses with dedicated 180 bricks. This would give me power access under the modules so I could have a total of four power districts on the layout. I would divid the modules say three or four combined depending on the overall layout size to form the power districts. Then connect each district to a power bus. I write or wrong on this? Am I missing something for the dcs signal to work properly? Thanks!

What you are describing may be a mix of buss and star wiring, no way to tell how that will work. IF each modual is connected to a TIU output by itself, this is fine.

Putting 2 moduals on a output together is a mixed topology.

 

If you need 2 moduals on one TIU output, I would put the terminal blocks near the TIU output. Run a pair of wires from each module block all the way to the terminal blocks for star wiring. Done this way with a Rel L TIU you should have no issues. with an older TIU you may need lights or filters at dead ends and occasionally elsewhere.

 

As I mentioned, clubs have had success with buss wiring, using Susan's engineered filters at each power drop to the track and making each module a block. The filters keep the signals from crossing back into each other on the buss. This needs a lot less wire and is far easier to wire up in a modular layout.

 

The Reason for star wiring:

If you did not have blocks the signals on the track would keep going around as they gradually got weaker and collide with each other. it makes for a mess of jumbled signals crossing.

The details:

The signal is a series of square wave DC pulses, very short duration and fast.

When it hits the terminal block it clones itself onto each wire out.

Now, as the signal travels down wire and track, it loses strength. More so on track than wire. Keep this in mind.

The clones run down the wire into the track where they again clone and go both ways down the track. Now you have possibly dozens of slightly weaker signal clones running down the track. When they hit the end of the track they bounce ! Weaker but still running they go back, now eventually they reach the point they came in on the wire so they send another clone back down the wire and continue down the track.

Eventually they cross paths with the signal that went down that way and bounced back. Here is the problem. They are pulses in a chain, some gaps are longer than others, this is normal, but where they cross they may one or the other or both be high at any given time. This makes the signal unreadable there. It's a mix of 2 mirrored signals, not usually in time with each other. To add to the mess, the TIU may send the command several times, so you can have lots of copies crossing one another all over.

The one coming from the TIU will always be stronger, but enough copies piling up will make it unreadable.  All this is why we make blocks with only one power feed per block. It means fewer signals are running around on each track.

 

The point of all this is the Filter will stop the signals that are weak from passing on, thus making only the original strong signal get around.

Optimal placement of the filters is at the end of the track at a block break, one on each side. These stop the bounce of the signal and you only have the original strong signal on the track, no echos.

It actually will work with one at each power input to the track.

This way you are only preventing echos from going back onto the buss and making it a mess by ganging up with others. (Remember that clone the signal sent back down the wire after it bounced?)

 

Top all this off with the reply the engine sends when it gets a command, if that reply doesn't get through you get CHECK TRACK, so it's important for the signal not to be bouncing back to the TIU too much.

 

I hope this does not confuse you even more as it is long and detailed.

email me if you need more info or help.

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