[Brian]

Hi all
I have been reading with interest on another forum the topic of whether of not the power bus (which also carries the DCC data signals) should/can be wired under the layout as a ring or radial circuit. Searching the internet I can't find any reference to ring circuits being used anywhere, as they all refer to radial power buses.

Will any short circuit currents be better and fast returning via a ring or a radial bus
Will the data on the power bus be best served by a radial or ring circuit?

So, is a DCC ring bus advisable or is it to be the radial or perhaps it just doesn't matter?

 

[Brian]

QUOTE (ebaykal @ 13 Feb 2008, 16:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Can you guys please explain what you mean by RADIAL?

Am abt to wire up my layout. Pretty smallish, 3mx2.5meters around the room. Planning 1.5mm sq for the bus wire and
0.25 mm sq diam. wires for the droppers.

Am I on the right track?

Baykal
Hi
Radial means not returning back to the place where the supply was inputted (Which is what a ring does) or in other words it starts at the supply and ends somewhere else. You an also have a radial that's 'T' feed. i.e. from supply to roughly the centre of the two main bus wires which then radiate out around the layout in roughly equal lenghts.

I have used a 2.5mm solid copper insulated wire (ex mains power point cable) as a bus on my layout (in radial format) with 16/02mm droppers coming off the bus and then connecting onto solid wire droppers from the rails above. These are made from some 1.0mm bare copper earth wire. But you can solder the 16/02mm wire directly onto the rails if wished.

 

[Brian]

Hi Expat
I think following some heated debates elsewhere, the ring really isn’t necessary so long as the radial bus wire is of the correct minimum size wire gauge and infact I can find no reference anywhere by anyone in the US (Where DCC has a much larger following) wiring a bus as a ring!
I'm no computer buff!!! and my understanding of data transfer is exactly as you have copied from one of my earlier comms with you.

Richard Johnson has I feel summed it up rather nicely too in the above, with the comment "There is no benefit power wise from a ring and there are potential negatives for data as the layout size increases with a ring... so if a simple answer is wanted "radial" is best."

While my web site also states..
"There is great debate as to whether or not the data bus should be in a ring"

I think the reference I made to milliseconds later should have been micro/nano seconds later but it was only a simplistic generalisation.

So for me it's the radial bus

Regards
Brian