Signal wire size from base to TMCC Direct Lock On?

The base goes directly to outside rail. Running it through the lockon will kill the signal.

Pete

Pete,

The TMCC Direct Lockon (6-34120) has a terminal specifically for the purpose of connecting the antenna wire from the command base.  It seems odd, but it's there:

Steve -- The wire carries only a radio signal, not a lot of current.  Use whatever's convenient.  22 or 24 Ga wire would be fine.

As far as the power strip goes you won't hurt anything by trying it.  It must have grounded outlets however, and I think you implied that it does.  The ground connection, i.e. the ground pin on the command base's wall wart, is the second antenna wire in the TMCC radio system.  One TMCC antenna connection goes to the track (in this case the wire from the command base to the direct lockon), and the second goes to to earth ground through the ground pin on the wall plug portion of the wart.

If for some reason you have problems later, primarily if you see only intermittent success when you send commands, from your Cab 1, 1L, or 2, you can then try plugging the wall wart directly into the wall outlet.

Mike

If there is a terminal I suspect it goes directly to the track in parallel with the U terminal of the Lock On. There is virtually no danger of shorting the Base out since the other wire is earth ground not usually found on the layout surface.

Pete

Agreed.

Thanks guys. I have some 14 Ga wire but it’s pretty stiff so I’ll pick up some lighter gauge.
Does it matter if it’s solid or stranded wire?

Thanks again.

It shouldn't but I always use solid for this kind of thing to make sure that none of the strands in stranded wire accidentally touch adjacent metal -- the resulting short circuit would surely kill the signal, and might also burn something up.   If you're going to use stranded it would best to twist and tin each end with solder, ensuring that there are no stray strands.

M.H.M.

You could actually use 30 guage if you wanted to. There is very little current in that wire, maybe a few milliamps.

Pete

Thanks for the clarifications guys! Very much appreciated.

Got some 18 ga solid core (the thinnest my local store had in stock in solid) and it worked great. Thank you all!