Mad, I am going mad. Having just thrown down eight-core low voltage cables all over the place I am now trying to rationalise the whole mess by making a wiring diagram. I start off by doing a narrative first of all, little tape recorder comes in handy here, and now am attempting to transfer this as a diagram on Word. But I will end up with about eighty four separate sheets of coloured paper, and anyway, how do you put a line representing a white wire on a white sheet of paper? It's enough to drive one to drink. What do you clever guys do? Or do you not bother with a diagram. Remember I talked about the 56 terminal EDAC bloc some time ago. Great thing, but trying to draw it on paper is not easy
Electric diagram
- Thread starter Glengrant
- Start date
I use the principle of making a diagram of the layout and a naming convention for each of the Track feeds. In this instance I have used a CAD package for the drawing (Pic 1) but a hand drawn one would work just as well. The reason I do it this way is that the diagram can get just so busy with all the wires.
Then I use a spread sheet for the actual colours and where they go (pic2). Note how I deal with the White Wire (WT) box just left clear and outlined in the spreadsheet. Hope that you can follow the attached pics which are form a friends complex 00 layout that I helped him with.
I tend to have a separate worksheet for Track Connections, Panel, Board Connectors and switches. You can then use just one of the sheets when following anything through to a failure.
JonD
Then I use a spread sheet for the actual colours and where they go (pic2). Note how I deal with the White Wire (WT) box just left clear and outlined in the spreadsheet. Hope that you can follow the attached pics which are form a friends complex 00 layout that I helped him with.
I tend to have a separate worksheet for Track Connections, Panel, Board Connectors and switches. You can then use just one of the sheets when following anything through to a failure.
JonD
Powerpoint works for me, and if you have word you probably have powerpoint.
These wer edone with Powerpoint (and a little practice)
These wer edone with Powerpoint (and a little practice)
Now there's a coupla useful replies, thanks both of you. I compound my problems by frequently using lengths of cable which are not long enough, so there has to be joins in places, and also much of the cable has been handed down from friends etc so I end up joining red to blue and so on. I hadn't thought of using Powerpoint, but I think I'll have a close look at that some rainy day, such as today. Thanks chaps
Cyril my suggestion would be to go look at a car wiring diagram don't matter for what car they are all layed out the same. the general principal of junctions and joins can be used exactly the same (But don't mix colours on the same wire!!) The wires are all represented in black then a simple colour key is used ie R= red, B= black, U= blue, all the other cymbals can be used as is................................
that is a sure recipe, never to feel bored during your retirement years.Glengrant said:
myself being a "great recycler", i did just that on my former layouts.
for my new layout i'm building, i bought new cables. (well, at least those colours i did not have)
for compability with LGB plans and diagrams i am using their colour code now. (with modifications)
red and blue = DC trackpower (plus green)
black, white and orange = AC switches
red, black and green/yellow inside of industrial black insulation = 220V AC
twin-cables in white-white, black-black or red-black for 12 DC or less = lighting on the layout
i hope to save many hours of failure-seeking by that system.
.
If you use white paper and draw the lines in black you can colour code them by using letters along side the wires. BK black BL blue GN green WH white ect.
You can use your own codeing as long as you keep to the same code all the time. Where the colours change put a dot and put on each side the colour of the wires.
You can the copy then using a black and white copier.
You can use your own codeing as long as you keep to the same code all the time. Where the colours change put a dot and put on each side the colour of the wires.
You can the copy then using a black and white copier.
Glengrant said:
To quote Loral Joiner, from "O" scale Magazine some thirty years ago, " Any wire cut to length will wind up being too short".
My take on it is Murphy. He has a way of making something go wrong even when everything is going right.