It is better to use 16 gauge and have a few power districts. It will have the least amount of harmonic reactance and lowest signal degradation, especially when you are not making the bus wires longer than 40 feet. After 40 feet, I would advise 14 gauge.
Sounds good enough. I have a good feeling this learning curve is going to make what hair I have left fall out. I'm sure its going to be well worth it in the end. I do have a question however. How hard is it to put decoders in an athearn bluebox loco? My fleet is mostly made up of them. Most likely more to come.
Interesting. I assume "harmonic reactance" is the same as "ringing"? In computer systems we'd use active termination (a resistor to ground) to dampen ringing. Does anyone do that on DCC power busses? Cheers, Jeff.
Another curve, dang! So Jeff, currently there is a suggestion to terminate the track bus rail A to rail B, but you are suggesting terminating to ground. My head is spinning.
I did some more research, and yes we are talking about the same concepts. "Wave reflections" is probably a better way to say it than either "ringing" or "harmonic reactance". Terminating to ground and terminating between rails should accomplish the same thing. You're just trying to dampen the reflected wave so it doesn't interfere with the one coming out of your command station. I'm still a new-comer to DCC, but I get the impression you won't need it with bus runs under 30 feet. More info here: http://www.dccwiki.com/Bus_Termination . Cheers, Jeff.
