I was looking at Puddlejumpers thread and noticed you have a coiled cord on the throttle, and you use dc if I remember right. Is that phone cord?
Thanks.

Loren

I, of course, can't say what he has...but...

The picture of his throttle and its cord looks exactly like my MRC Control Master 20. It uses standard telephone wire so that you can wire up your layout with common components.

A truly awesome transformer...
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I asked because I read where phone cable was not recommended as it was to light. If you guys recommend it, then I will give it a try.

Loren

A quick and inadaquate reply, you'll need better info from others: Whether you can use phone able depends on the circuit, I built a dc throttle long ago where the power came in on two leads to a potentiameter (sp) and the other two wires in the cable went to track power. In this application, I could not use phone cable, the resistance was too high. I bought some rather expensive coiled cable from an electronics store.

What cable you use is entirely dependant on the design of the control. I suspect that the MRC unit can use a telephone cord because the the hand held unit may not be transmitting full track power to the rails. It may just be sending a signal to the main control unit and that then interprets the signal to send power to the rails. If you are trying to send more than milliamps through the cable, you will need something bigger than phone cable and plugs.

That's what I was beginning to suspect, Russ. Thanks.
I have 12vac going in and 2 amp dc going out. I think I would melt the wires. hock:

Loren

Russ Bellinis Wrote:What cable you use is entirely dependant on the design of the control. I suspect that the MRC unit can use a telephone cord because the the hand held unit may not be transmitting full track power to the rails. It may just be sending a signal to the main control unit and that then interprets the signal to send power to the rails. If you are trying to send more than milliamps through the cable, you will need something bigger than phone cable and plugs.

telephone lines can handle tons of traffic. The MRC CM20 uses both lines (four wires) of the telephone wire...enough communication capacity for two computers with 56k modems. The transformer is in the box...and the trains do not stop when you unplug the throttle to move to a new location.

If Wayne uses this or a similar system, then it would cause no trouble.

Digital signals are of an infintesimal amperage, so can move through very thin wires. For any kind of a load,such as a DC motor hauling a bunch of unmaintained cars (like mine.... :oops: ) at 12 v. you will need at least a 20 ga. if you're talking a short run; for longer runs you should use at least a 16 ga. Telephone wire will work, but you will see very poor performance from your locos, and maybe a circuit breaker popping....

If I had been paying attention, I would have answered earlier. The cord in the photo is indeed 'phone cord, and is supposedly 30' long. It will reach anywhere within the layout room, although I generally unplug it to follow a train, plugging it in at various facia jacks spotted around the room. As Michael and Russ have mentioned, it is used in conjunction with an MRC Controlmaster 20, and doesn't carry the power that actually runs the trains.

I can also use one of my SCR throttles to run trains (much finer control), but the hand-held units require an input of AC power (from the AC terminals of a power pack or from a separate AC transformer), which they convert to DC, which is then routed back to the track. I have a heavier cable for these throttles, and use a single, non-compatible output jack near the power source. I suspect that the combination of the cable's wire size, coupled with the fact that I use only a single pair of wires to power the layout, limits the output of these throttles - they will run a single locomotive and its train anywhere on the layout, but if additional locos are required, especially due to train weight, they can't supply sufficient power.

I also have a PWM throttle, but have yet to hook it into a cable system - it offers the control capabilities of the SCR throttles with the output capabilities of the Controlmaster 20. I'll get around to it, eventually.

Wayne

Thanks for the replies everyone. Just what I needed to know.

Loren