Subject:
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Re: ILTCO Article - Making heavy-duty powered LEGO® Track Connections for Public Display Layouts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Fri, 6 Feb 2004 13:56:24 GMT
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Viewed:
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2045 times
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In lugnet.announce.iltco, Mike Walsh wrote:
> A new article has been contributed the ITLCO web site.
>
> Making heavy-duty powered LEGO® Track Connections for Public Display Layouts
> by David 'Zonker' Harris of BayLTC.
> http://www.iltco.org/library/articleShow.php?articleid=28
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Mike
Good article. I was working on a similar system for ngltc.
But i did mine a little differently.
My goals other than the obvious were
Minimize the modification of lego parts.
Keep the cost down.
Compatibility. (ie we could use the same system for any power needs on the
layout.)
Of course the best solution for compatibility would be the standard lego wires,
but these are expensive and would take many for long distances as stated in
David's article.
So plainly put I decided to make "extension cords" for the standard lego
connectors. I would take a standard lego wire, and cut it into two pieces. Put a
standard electrical connector on the ends of the wire. Then I could build as
"extension cords" out of non-lego wire using the same connectors. As a result I
would have one wire that could be any length I needed. I could also make
different lengths if needed. And the system could be used for any lego
electrical part. This includes track, motors and rcx sensors.
The connectors I chose for the job are 1/4in (22-18) nylon disconnects. They
come in male and female. Of course you need both.Here is a link to some
examples.
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&User_ID=18306616&St=3060&St2=-64236599&St3=-33918502&DS_ID=3&Product_ID=2684&DID=7
I chose these for several reasons
They work well for small wires.
They are cheap compared to other connectors.
The connections are shielded so that short circuts are minimized.
Finaly They are single wire connectors,
Because they are single wire connectors, i can place a male and female on a wire
and have a genderless connection. This eliminates the need for gender changers.
Of course it can have another problem, polairity. To minimize this I made sure
that all my lego connectors had the same setup. With the cord facing away from
you, Male is always on the right.
Like David's, they have not been tested on a large display yet. I used them
extensively on my drawbridge and they have worked very well.
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