DCC Controller, DC Transformer and Baseboard wiring

As well as using DCC control for the Locos I will need 16v ac for the Capacitor Discharge Unit (CDU) to fire the turnouts motors over and 12v dc for the Signals, Building and Street Lights and to drive a small hand held analogue DC controller for testing Locos that have not yet been chipped (converted to DCC operation).

To supply these additional voltages I am using an old H&M Powerpack, here is a front and back view;

Front View

This Powerpack supplies 16v ac from the left hand side banana connectors (yellow),
12v dc from the rear screw terminals.
12v dc from the right hand side banana connectors (from a separate winding of the transfomer so electrically separate from the rear 12v dc supply)



Rear View

I have made up a special cable to connect all three supplies to the layout via a 6 pin XLR female plug fixed to the black cable left, and a male XLR socket (fixed into the baseboard). This type of plug is used in the music industry for connecting microphones, speakers, amps etc and is extreemly robust.
 The black cable left has 3 pairs of wires as follows;
16v ac - two yellow banana plugs (right in photo) supply to the CDU
12v dc - red and black banana plugs (left in photo) supply for Building and Street lights, also supply for hand held DC Controller
12v dc - red and black spade terminals (centre left) supply for Signal control.


Here is a photo of the male XLR socket fitted to the underneath of the right hand baseboard;

The male XLR socket is to the right in the photo.
Also in the photo, to the left of the XLR socket is a male 2.5 X 5.5mm DC Chassis Socket.
I want to have all the power connections in one place on the baseboard, so this socket will take the plug from the NCE DCC Controller 6v dc PSU. Connected to this socket is some twin speaker cable which runs through this and the next baseboard to where the DCC controller pcb will be mounted. On the end of the speaker cable is a male 2.5 X 5.5mm plug which plugs into the DCC controller pcb.
The result of this is that I can have the DCC mains psu and H&M Powerpack co-located in a double mains socket, and connected to the baseboard with only two cables (one each).

The two 12v dc supplies, CDU output bus, DCC bus and 6v dc DCC controller supply run along under the baseboard using the coloured wires shown in these photos;

 

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The CDU is mounted under the baseboard to the left of the main power connector socketss, here is a photo;

It has a 16v ac input and provides a 20v dc output to crisp;y fire the turnout motor.











Finally, I have revised the wiring scheme for the layout as follows;

DCC Feed (balanced pair)

DCC Bus (32/0.2)

Black (outer rail)

Red (inner rail)

Drop Wires (16/0.2)

Black (outer rail)

Red (inner rail)

Turnout (t/o) motors Capacitor Discharge Unit (CDU) 

CDU Feed from transformer to CDU (32/0.2)

Black - 16v AC pair

CDU output Bus (32/0.2)

Green (t/o motor common 20v dc -ve)

Yellow (t/o operating switch common 20v dc +ve)

Drop Wires (16/0.2)

Blue - t/o operating switch to t/o motor left coil

Brown - t/o operating switch to t/o motor right coil

Standard DC to operate signals

12v dc Bus (32/0.2)

White (signal motor common 12v dc -ve)

Orange (Signal operating switch common 12v dc +ve)

Drop Wires (16/0.2)

Grey - signal operating switch to signal motor "on"

Violet - signal operating switch to signal motor "off"

Controlled DC feed for non chipped locos (using small H&M controller)

Feed from transformer to controller and output from controller to track via switch (32/0.2)

Green (+ve)

White (-ve)

Lighting feed (use same transformer output as Controlled DC feed above)

12v dc Lighting bus (32/0.2)

Blue (+ve)

Yellow (-ve)

Drop Wires (16/0.2)

Blue (+ve)

Yellow (-ve)

Turnout and Slip Frog to turnout motor change over switch

White (16/0.2)

Now I have the main supply and bus wiring done on this baseboard I can finally get down to laying some track, so this is what I will be doing next.