Fishmanoz Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Does it really matter what polarity you connect them Chris? Surely if it did, it would also matter which direction you put a loco on the track. And Dude, this works equally for a power track as a power clip or a full blown DCC bus. In fact, the requirement is just that all decoders, loco or accessory, must be connected to the track output of your controller, either directly, via the track, or via wire connected to that output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Does it really matter what polarity you connect them Chris? Surely if it did, it would also matter which direction you put a loco on the track..Absolutely not at all Fishman, no technical reason whatsoever, at least none that we know about. I just have a very logical tidy mind, possibly bordering on being OCD. I like order and consistency. With that in mind, keeping each motor wired the same, is the approach I would personally take if doing this for myself. It would really bug me if I didn’t keep to a defined wiring plan..And as you can see it's 03:00 UK time and I'm having another one of my insomnia nights sitting here wide awake at my PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Further addition to my last reply.The likelyhood that the OP is going to use frog switching is very remote indeed, but if you look on the installation datasheet for wiring in a DDC environment (not the DC wiring option) you can see that the switched frog polarity seems to be defined by the orientation of the wires on the 'DCC in' terminals. Thus getting the 'DCC in' wires the right way round would be potentially important in a live frog scenario. Therefore using two wire colours and wiring to a consistent and defined plan would be helpful for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 I'm with Chris here in that I like to keep my DCC wiring matched across the layout (I view it simplistically as + & - volts AC) in order to keep all parts of the circuits 'in phase'.I too hand draw up wiring diagrams, initially to aid the wiring up phase and then to support the fault finding phase and/or any further changes to the circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train duuudeee Posted May 2, 2015 Author Share Posted May 2, 2015 What would powering the frog do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train duuudeee Posted May 2, 2015 Author Share Posted May 2, 2015 I use the Hornby points clips to make all the tracks live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westernwill Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 ChrisDo you mean in parallel or in sequence.i.e each motor wired separately to the cable connecting to the eliteOR point motor 3 connected to point motor 2 which is then connected to point motor 1 which then connects to the elite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 ChrisDo you mean in parallel or in sequence..Both, point motors in sequence i.e as you said "point motor 3 connected to point motor 2 which is then connected to point motor 1 which then connects to the elite.", but the input "DCC in" connections are electrically in parallel across the two wires. See drawing below to see what I mean../media/tinymce_upload/d86c57f257286dd4898f5c78d0303433.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 Westernwill,Answer posted as a drawing. Awaiting moderation, check back later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted May 2, 2015 Share Posted May 2, 2015 What would powering the frog do? .As you are using Hornby points, Hornby do not currently support live powered frogs, but other manufacturers do. A live frog has benefits in terms of smooth low speed loco running over points and effectively eliminates any risk of short circuits occurring on the points..See here for more info on live frogs (electrofrogs)And for a video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyO Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I have used both types of digital Cobalt point motors, the original and the IP versions, both are brilliant and work really well but make sure you purchase the IP version now. The original has a voltage input problem when programming them using RM. It can be overcome by putting a 100 ohm resistor in one of the DCC input lines but it's just extra work. How do you mean, a "voltage input problem"? Did that stop the point working, permanently or temporarily? How did you find out about the resistor requirement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinE Posted May 6, 2015 Share Posted May 6, 2015 I have used both types of digital Cobalt point motors, the original and the IP versions, both are brilliant and work really well but make sure you purchase the IP version now. The original has a voltage input problem when programming them using RM. It can be overcome by putting a 100 ohm resistor in one of the DCC input lines but it's just extra work. How do you mean, a "voltage input problem"? Did that stop the point working, permanently or temporarily? How did you find out about the resistor requirement? No need for you to worry about that as the new IP Cobalts don't have the voltage input problem as DCC Concepts changed the design from the there original version. In the original Cobalts the input voltage range was 9 to 15 volts and the e-link output runs at 15.2 volts which made for unreliable programming. Putting a 100 ohm resistor in one of the DCC input wires dropped the input voltage to the motors to within there design range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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