1/32 Vintage Revell comes back to life

Finally nailed down a plan for wiring. As I said I am doing duplicate driver stations on both sides. I'm using XLR plugs, 14 AWG wire and Blue Sea 12x terminal strips. I'm trying to shop locally because I want to see what I'm buying and have the option to run out and get more when I need it. I'm in a rather small town so first I went to Radio Slack and they basically no longer carry anything but antennas and cell phones. Bad selection of "parts". Then I went to the only local electronics shop and bought a bunch of stuff. But the terminal strips were just too poorly made. I ended up with the Blue Sea strips that I found at a marine supply place. Heavier than I need but oh so sweet. Thicker in every dimension with more space around the terminals with longer #8 screws. Much easier to work with and the terminals accommodate more wires. I'll post photos tomorrow. Tonight I am honing my soldering skills.

Assembling the wiring. XLR jacks for the controllers, terminal blocks and switches. Banana plugs won't handle the 12AWG from my power supply. Not sure if any do. Could use srew posts but would like a jack.





Here you can see how beefy the terminal block is. Made my own jumpers.



XLR jacks are nice.

I've been using some old Parma Turbo controllers that I picked up on eBay years ago. My track is about 55', and like yours is taped. The controllers work alright and the resistors can be swapped out to better suit the cars you're using. I think that mine have 35 and 45 ohm resistors. They work well enough for me for the variety of cars I have (Classic Asp - Ninco NC-1). I do have fuses wired into my driver's stations. I've put them to good use over the years, so I think it's something to consider if you aren't using them already. I also have a friend that has a similar setup and he uses Parma Economy controllers with good results. There are certainly better and more costly controllers if you are interested in that sort of thing.

Eureka, California. Hmm, that rules out hopping in the car and checking out each other's track. Oh well, at least there's SF.

Regards,
Brad

Hi Mike, nice work!

My track wiring is very similar to your's, and I used resettable polymer fuses on my terminal blocks as well. As Brad has done, I've also installed fuses into each driver station. As for the exact reason I installed them, I can't quite remember anymore. I think I installed them because I thought that I needed to protect the circuitry AFTER the terminal block, as well as offering additional protection to the controller. Whatever the reason, I can tell you that over the past 8 years or so, I've had at least one or two of these drivers' station fuses blow (even though I also have the circuit breakers), which suggests to me that an overload somehow made it past the resettable polymer fuses. So I would concur with Brad, and suggest that you may want to consider installing them. A very cheap extra bit of protection.

As for controllers, I use a simple Parma Economy that I've rewired to have selectable resistance values of 25, 35, and 45 ohms. I can drive most any type of car, from old vintage cars that draw a ton of current, to modern plastic RTR cars. If you go with Parmas, I can give you the parts list and wiring diagram.