Just #22. Or 20? Overkill either way, but the smaller wire doesn’t play nice.
Thanks Bruce!
With the three miles of overkill you have put into this endeavor I bet the museum is glad to have you on their team Cliff. From the .001mm slivers to get the topography dead on, exact Z scale printed building replicas ( with stay wires for the mansion ), the multiple replaceable modules for the control panels ( including replacements ), universal plug and play wiring sets for simplicity, and I note ( tubing to protect and organize those runs ). They would be hard pressed to find that kind of care and concern anywhere else and you offer replacement repair service if there were to be a failure. All shows the love of the subject that they would get nowhere else.
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David, that’s super kind of you to note those things. Very encouraging, thank you so much!!
Cliff
[edit] (Dang, now I gotta make sure you don’t see all my screw-ups that I don’t post about… 
)
10th wire from the right is more than.125” out of place compared to wires 3 and 7!!!
Please fix and repost!!!
Holy cow Cliff anyone would be very impressed with the wiring , routing, clamping and overall presentation of the parts very few will see, unless they put mirrors and open up the cabinets , which they probably should show!!! Awesome
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That you have mentioned here and there which only adds to the commitment you do show.
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He’s just doing all this detail so he can say he didn’t have any time to finish his Tressel … 
Welcome to my world Cliff!! At least your wiring will be very accessible!
BTW …I am assuming your going to add some type of circuit protection? I realize its low voltage and nothing will probably happen. However that’s an awful lot of wire and once it starts melting there ain’t nothing stopping it (fuse/circuit breaker) if it’s not protected.
(no I’m not describing a woman either)
Just thinking out loud!
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Today was mounting the LED’s in the model, after working out the method yesterday.
The holes in the model for the LED’s are ragged, so I needed a collar to trim them out and also provide an up-stop for the LED itself. So I cut a bunch of 1/4" OD styrene tube which happened to have an ID that matches the LED OD.
I then CA’d the collars into the model holes, used a scalpel to trim the collars flush with the terrain, and did a bit of filler & sanding.
Then came inserting the LED’s, getting the right colors in the right holes. To secure them, in a removable manner, I tried a bunch of different materials but the best was just packing with a bit of modeling clay from behind. I should have gotten black clay, because the green I had on hand shows through the LED a bit. But WTH. I Sharpied the rear end of each LED black to help that out.
Here’s some installed LED’s.
Tomorrow the plan is to mount the circuit boards and tie all these LED’s into them, and maybe get some testing in.
Salute,
Cliff
HAAhahaHAAA! Thanks Pete, you’re too funny! It was the 11th wire from the right.
Thanks very much, I really appreciate it!!
Thanks very much Hollywood, that really means a lot.
Oooh, schematics! You did those? What software?
You bet, great point on the fuse. It’s all LED, powered from a single driver having internal circuit protection. But I haven’t put that end of things together yet.
I’ll definitely keep your point in mind as the final top-level wiring happens, maybe this weekend or later next week. Thanks Dude!
Looks fantastic! If you are using a power supply specifically designed for LEDs with built-in protection, a fuse would be slower than the power supply’s protection circuit and would never blow even if you dead short the main buss.
One thing to put in your notes for future troubleshooting: If the LEDs flash briefly and regularly, that indicates an over-current situation. Happens on my RR with the lighting buss running via the track after a heavy rain when current can leak between the rails through the ballast and across wet ties.
I assume you have one or more LEDs that are on constantly so you can verify that the power supply has output. Those are what would flash to indicate over-current. Also, assuming you are using simple switches to light the LEDs, the ones that activate by push buttons would only flash if the button was pushed and held.
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Wow! What an awesome project, masterfully executed!
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Thanks very much Ray, much obliged!!
Jon. thanks for all that. Good guidance on the current protection, and I didn’t know that about the blinking, cool!
Today went fairly smoothly with the LED tie-in’s. No big surprises, just tedious.
Still wish I’d painted the undersides, but I’m trying to learn the skill called “pinching it off since no one will see or care except my LSC buddies.”
You may have noticed the ferrules I’ve been using on stranded wire, and this is the first project I’ve done that. They allow for a more secure connection to terminal blocks / etc.
There’s an big IF though: a secure connection, IF the ferrule is crimped solidly onto the wire. And unfortunately, I noticed some loose ones only after I’d done all the console & harness wiring.
Yesterday I was about to solder the ~80 ferrules involved for each LED connector… but, long story short, the hub of my wife’s friend came by with wife, and wanted to see what I was up to. I explained the crimping problem, and since he used the thing at work, he asked if I’d adjusted the crimper? Uh… nnnnoooo?
Well, that notched wheel needed to be turned CW one notch, and all was great! And he even re-crimped my LED ferrules while I did other stuff, and our wives continued their chat session!
But, today, I had to tear apart all four consoles and re-crimp every ferrule. Some of them were literally falling off the wire, yet somehow I hadn’t noticed! Sheesh!
OK, I know, read the instructions first… 
But I’m glad that’s all done, along with the wiring.
All that’s needed electrically (he says over-confidently) is adding strain relief to main cables from the model sections, final testing with everything together, power supply setup, and a few cable labels.
Cheers,
Cliff
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They flash because the protection circuit keeps checking until the fault goes away. On/Fault-Off-On/Fault-Off-On/No Fault-On
You’re going to plug it in? Cue Rooster’s nuke GIF 
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Here’s all the modules finally together and hooked up to an LED driver and a dimmer feeding that.
There are 16 stations. You read a title box on top and push the button (both always lit). Then the corresponding graphic panel and one or more in-model LED’s light up. Pretty basic stuff.
Electrical is done, yay!
Cheers,
Cliff
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Wow that’s looking great! When they set it up will you have to go there to cover up the line between the 2 sections of the model?
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