Soldering a power tap on a HO scale slot car track

Installation, soldering, and testing a power tap on my routed HO scale slot car track
The tap itself is 16 AWG tinned copper wire, my connecting wire is 14 AWG stranded copper.

[@roadsscholar4012]

Great idea! I would have never thought of doing it this way.

[@randy1817]

With it being that tight to press the wire in you could also use glue on the tip of the wire.. Either will work fine. That way if you don't trust yourself with soldering, just use glue..

[@Enigma-lv3rp]

Hey Bob, I just got notice thaty viper track has shipped and I have a couple questions for ya
1st Why the need for the shrink tube? 2nd Judging by the placement of the negative wire in this video your cars will be traveling counter clockwise....correct? That's the way we want ours cars to go.
3rd It looks like you went with the harder material. I have the white sintra coming which is softer so I'm worried that I won't get away with soldering the drops the way that your doing it, what's your thoughts? Thanks, Brian

[@bobk8539]

Hello Brian,
The heat shrink was just to cover the soldered joint and bare wire.
Yes you’re correct, I run the cars counter clockwise however, I use the Trackmate driver stations that have the directional switch to run either way.
I did go with the harder type 1 PVC material. I have a friend that has a Sintra track and we had more success using a screen install tool for the lock wire and rails rather than the Viper tool. The Sintra makes a nice track but it is not as forgiving as the type 1 pvc when installing the rails. Be careful and take it slow, it’s easy to crease or fold over the edge of the groove. He didn’t solder his power taps either, they’re just press fit.
Have fun and enjoy the build. Send me a pic when you get it finished.
Bob

[@Enigma-lv3rp]

I'm worried about the oxidation build up over time effecting the press fit connection. I'm going to at least try soldering them in. Thanks for responding.@@bobk8539

[@mortonbeard2240]

What are they for ? To even out the power: more power?

[@michaelpeterson2773]

Could I purchase 9” and 15” AFX AURORA power tap track from you?

[@docorocsrt]

So you only need 1 wire per lane? I assume it’s the (-) wire off the power source? Or from another track piece close to power source? The 2 holes per lane not being used here or did you just not video that part?

[@bobk8539]

Hello Jeff, It needs two connections per lane, one positive (drivers side) and one negative. This is one of 72 power tap connections on my track. Yes I didn’t video the other side but they were all done this way.
This track kit (Viper) comes with power tap holes on each end of the track pieces. That extra choice makes it easy to choose and layout the power to the track.
You sure could connect track sections in this manner, a jumper wire essentially.

[@docorocsrt]

I’m trying to simply learn how to improve performance by getting power to the area halfway around my track circuit. I’m using 4 Tripacks ( 1 per lane of course) and just 2-wire controllers (no brakes) on my AFX/Racemasters track. Nothing fancy but I can’t find any easy diagrams on how to get power to other sections. It’s not clear to me if these are “taps” or “jumpers” lol. I just saw a video where he just used the (-) wire from his power source and connected it to the corresponding rail of the lane across the track circuit. Also have seen some wire both (+) and (-) from rails of track section next to “main terminal” track receiving power and connecting to corresponding rails of lane across the track circuit (even several “taps” every so many connections of track). Help? Appreciate your efforts here on the videos for sure.

[@bobk8539]

@@docorocsrt hey that’s great, AFX track! I agree, learning how to wire it all up is most of the battle if you don’t have someone there that’s done it before. On my track they’re all power taps. All are wired from the power tap, back to a distribution block, then the drivers stations, then the timing system relay, and finally the power supply. I used the AccuTech advanced track wiring diagram as a guide. l can email it to you if needed. It has direction switches on it but you can just bypass that obviously. Just follow the + and - connections. With your track I would run power taps rather than jumpers. Use a power distribution block coming off your driver stations and distribute power (+and-) to each lane tap you want. A guy in my club is doing that now to his AFX track and I believe he’s going with 7 power taps. Let me know how else I can help