Wiring Block

[crashdmj]

Im a major newb when it comes to wiring etc. What is the point of a wiring block? Is it to make things neater inside your cab?

[REBIRTH]

I had two reasons to use wiring block(s) for my cab.

1) I have 3 control panels hooked up to an I-Pac/Opti-Pac at all times (the panels rotate) - so the I needed a way to wire 3 or 4 buttons to the same input on the I-Pac.  The I-Pac terminal only can fit 2 wires at a time (3 if you really squeeze it in there).  So I use wiring blocks to go from 3/4 wires down to 1 and that 1 into the I-Pac

2) to make it neater.  The inards of my cab looks like hell, and I did things incredibly neat.  Without some wiring blocks it would be 10 times harder to figure out a problem when one comes up.

Doug

[Brad Lee]

I'll spare the pics of mine..

Yes it makes trouble shooting a little easier, tracing faults n crap like that.
It usually will look neater than a typical wire jungle

Also if youre planning on doing any kind of removable panel, or swappable, or modular, it's almost neccessary as a place to split the wires so the CP can be removed without messing around with the encoder at all



After seeing that youre the same guy askin about multi-conducter wire, check the pics in this thread http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=7920 it shows the 25-pair cable and a large wiring block.. dunno if this is what you have in mind or if youre still planning

[crashdmj]

Thank you for the info Brad Lee and REBIRTH, my summer is devoted to this and a summer job (college student so no full time work yet)! Thanks
Derek

[pmc]

my summer is devoted to this and a summer job (college student so no full time work yet)! Thanks
Derek

God I miss that. I wanna go back to those days...  

[bdsjake]

pardon the dumb electronic question, but is a "wiring block" the same as a "terminal block" or terminal strip?  Found something at digikey.com called terminal block.  Want I want, eg, is to be able to connect serveral grounds together, with one jumper to ground on ipac or power supply, thanks.

[crashdmj]

Did some research and I am almost positive they are one in the same...need a guru to confirm it though. Radioshack.com also has some.
Derek

[steve_pss]

i just finshed my first cab and cp from scratch. the wiring is really straightfoward so dont sweat it.

assuming your using an IPAC (why wouldnt ya?) then try this:

go to the shack, buy some terminal blocks, make sure you get the jumpers for the blocks. install the jumpers in the blocks and run a wire jumper from each block to the next. this creates on central continueous point to make all your common side connections to, rather than having to daisy chain the common side of each micro switch together. once you have all the commons nice and neat to the terminal strips you run one off the terminal to the ipac ground

then

wire one lead from each nornally open lead to the correct termination the ipac and your all set

im a complete noob and i got it right the 1st time.

[crashdmj]

What exactly are the jumpers for?

[Valence]

The jumpers are for the terminal block. You have to jumper the terminals together. They look like a little solid thin piece of metal with two holes at the end for the screw.

Valence

[steve_pss]

Here's what you need:

.187 crimp on disconnects: - the female ones only - a waste but what can you do-

http://www.radioshack.com/searchplus.asp?type=ALL&find=187&pagetype=toggle

Ring terminals for connection to terminal block:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F003%5F005%5F000&product%5Fid=64%2D3115

Terminal Blocks:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F003%5F006%5F000&product%5Fid=274%2D659

Jumpers:

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&category%5Fname=CTLG%5F005%5F003%5F006%5F000&product%5Fid=274%2D650

And of course wire. I used solid but I think i would have went with stranded if I knew what I was doing.