Hi there! Today I tried the Kadee HO uncoupler #309 I'm scheduling for my layout. Why HO? Because my idea was to use them far below what is normally recommanded: Actually the coil is circa 7 cm (a little bit less than 3 inches) under trackbase. My tranformer gives 15 V where 16 is the recommended value, and 3.8 Amps where 3 is the recommended. I've concerns about the wire gauge. My wire is pretty light. The instruction sheet says 20 Gauge wire but I guess it's an american reference. As an european I don't what that stands for, I don't know if for example 10 Gauge is broader or narrower than 20 gauge, and I don't know matching wire diameter. All what I know is that my uncoupler doesn't work (no motion at all on my MTL couplers) although I checked the voltage OK. Any idea to share there? Is the coil far too low under track? Is my wire too small? Is my 15V voltage too low? Thanks for any trick.:tb-wink: Dom
For copper wire AGW 20 gauge diameter = 0.032 inch = .8128 mm maximum amps for chassis wiring = 11 AGW 10 gauge diameter = 0.1019 inch = .9989 mm maximum amps for chassis wiring = 55 In the Metric Gauge scale, the gauge is 10 times the diameter in millimeters. For example, 50 gauge metric wire would be 5 mm in diameter. In AWG scale, the diameter goes up as the gauge goes down In metric gauges it is the opposite. Confused? To test if the wire is too light, just double the wires and checkout.
have a look here for a table for converting AWG to mm/mm2: http://www.klotz-ais.com/cgi-bin/quickorder/lshop.cgi?action=download&file_id=8&wkid=2004g&ls=d&nocache= Daniel
Hi Dom, I installed my Kadee uncouplers such that the two metal poles just stick through the road bed and touches the sleepers of the track above. Works fine for me. I use rather thin wire, no idea what the exact diameter is. It is the type of wire hobby shops sell for model trains. (at least in Europe). I made aluminium brackets to screw the coil with poles to the bottom of the module.
OK Frank, thanks for the input. Indeed after having had thoughts about this I guess I found the way to solve my problem. As my roadbed lies on a piece of wood about 20 cm long (8") and 2.5 cm high (1") I'll have to drill 4 cross track holes inside (2 under roadbed and 2 other below, just above the layout's plate) in order to insert a saw and remove that extra piece of wood. Afterwards I'll have to file just under roadbed, and to cut a rectangle in the plywood plate to insert the coil. But prior to that I'll check another wire, hoping it to allow more amps. Anyway I'll be far from home on the next 9 days so no more input meanwhile. Dom
