Been working on the benchwork here and there the last few days.

First I picked up some caster wheels from Lowe’s.  Siever’s legs come with a hole drilled on the bottom for their little adjustable foot things. I had to drill this hole a little wider and deeper for the 2″ wheels.  They’ve been working great so far.  I still need to add angle bracing to each leg just for a little extra support, though they work great as is.

I then decided I would go ahead and pre-wire the 16 DCC bus lines that’ll connect to the BDL168 occupancy detector board, along with a primary Rail A/B bus.  I’ve got 8 run so far. Might be a little overkill to run all 16 wires the length of the layout, but I figure easier to do it now than later under the layout. I also labeled each wire after each cross beam so there’s no guessing as to which wire is what.

I also installed a little shelf for the DCS100 to sit on.  It’s zip tied in place so it isn’t going anywhere.

And lastly, I installed additional bracing to support the wire panel.

Shaun Benchwork, DCC

Since it could be just a few weeks until I have a mainline up and running, I decided to go ahead and send in my Digitrax DT400 throttle to get updated to a DT402D for wireless duplex operation.

At first I thought I’d just stick with my wired setup, but eventually decided that being able to walk from one side to other and back without having to keep unplugging/plugging in a throttle would be nice.

So off to Digitrax she goes!  Their website is saying a 3-4 weeks turnaround.

Shaun DCC

With the new layout, I’ll only need 1 logic board to run the 8 signal heads I’ll need instead of the previously planned two.  So I decided to move the 1 circuit board (that was in a panel all by itself) over to the primary panel.

I removed the DCS100 booster itself because I plan to mount this under the layout near the panel so it’s in an open spot for better airflow and heat ventilation.  Only 4 wires will need to be run from the booster into the panel (Rail A, Rail B, DCC Ground, Loconet).

Here’s a look at the new signal wiring, and the whole panel.

Shaun DCC