Construct new loom.
Laurence was taking a break with his family so just Stephen & Geoff.
Geoff immediately suggested that a start was made on the new wiring loom. The first thing was to establish which boards were to be connected together. After initial confusion, the three connectors were identified - an 8-way for the fiddleyard and 2 x 20-way for the main boards. The new three-plug loom comprised just the connections required for the 5 board exhibition layout extension as the second 8-way on the engine shed board is connected to the exchange board control unit. A suitable end point for the control box end of the wire was decided (i.e. the seat of the chair underneath!). Initial wires were measured from their plug to the chair seat and multiple lengths cut.
Lengths of wire were cut and soldered to the connector pins, with labels as per the pin numbers.
Fiddleyard connector - just 5 wires. One of Geoff's 3D printed shells was used for the 8-way plug.
Engine shed and mason's yard boards had extra wires fitted connecting to unused pins, just in case.
The three hanks were then taped together to make the loom. One wire was required to run between the 2 x 20-way plugs for the point frog that straddles the board joint, while all of the others connect to switches in the control panel.
Next weeks' job: soldering the loose wires to the control panel pins.
