Help on round wire - terminal blocks?

[BriJohn]

Hey everybody. I think I'm at the stage where I really must tackle wiring my dollhouse before I move on. And well, now I am working on two dollhouses (got the RGT Painted Lady for my daughter for Christmas, shhhh, and it's coming together much faster than my Newport bash up). Anyway, I finally decided to try round wire after talking to the owner of Miniature Design in Atlanta. I bought the Cir-Kit Round Wire Instruction Book. My question is about these terminal blocks.

1. Are the terminal blocks interchangeable with the power strips? Like can you run your wires down to the bottom of the dollhouse and then plug them into the power strips and then into the transformer? I mean what other would be the purpose of the power strips then? If they are the same purpose, then wouldn't the terminal blocks be more sturdy of a connection because you screw the screws down onto the wires? Or maybe on the other hand, the power strips might be more convenient if you want to unplug one of your lights from the system?

The book says about terminal blocks, "the purpose of the terminal blocks is to provide a convenient connection point for wires coming from the light fixtures and transformer. They act much like act much like the power box in a real home in that all wires eventually terminate there. The terminal block itself has no electrical effect on the system...."

2. How many light fixtures can you put on a large terminal block? You just keep stacking and stacking wires on that thing? The book suggest using two terminal blocks - one on the top level and on the bottom of the dollhouse (for convenience I suppose).

I'm sure I'm making this harder than it is. Any help greatly appreciated.

Edited August 9, 2015 by BriJohn

[nuttiwebgal]

have ya thought about battery operated lights....not something the plug into but each light has its own battery allowing the person to turn on each light as wanted

and thus eliminating all of your above issues? sorry I am not much help with wiring...except this....once you have it where you want it

REMEMBER it is there when you go to trim your wallpapers and such... exacto knife and wiring,,so not a good combo...lol

but seriously good luck with your project...so much fun to see a little girls eyes light up when getting such a gift...

 

[sparklepuppies]

Yes, pretty much all.your assumptions are correct. Strips and plugs are easier, terminal blocks are pretty sturdy. Ken at Miniature designs prefers the terminal blocks because of the sturdy and I know he recommends those. And remember, he's a man, and those seem more manly than those strips and plugs! In fact, I was at a class there yesterday, and someone said, it's almost time for the terminal blocks! I don't think there would be a limit on how many wires you can put on a block, but if I remember i can ask. Personally, if I had room for more than one, I would do that, to keep them more organized. A few years back, I got a house from a man whose mother had passed away. She used the strips, and the strips were falling off the house, and the plugs were all coming out.

But really, both are fine, whichever seems best for you! Maybe, if you feel you may switch some stuff out, you can hide a small strip in a fireplace, closet, etc, then wire that to a block.

Have fun!

[rbytsdy]

2. How many light fixtures can you put on a large terminal block? You just keep stacking and stacking wires on that thing? The book suggest using two terminal blocks - one on the top level and on the bottom of the dollhouse (for convenience I suppose).

However many you can fit on there-- the limiting factor will be the transformer itself: About Miniatures article re choosing a transformer.

[BriJohn]

Nutti, yes, I've thought about battery operated. I really want them to all come on with the flip of a switch mostly but I can see where it might be nice to only have certain rooms on as well. It would be fun for sure to have some battery operated lamps to move around on tables and such without needing a plug. I know my daughter would love that too.

bluebear, thank you so much! I can't believe what a small world it is in miniatures. LOL, small world. I was there in June passing through on vacation and Ken was very nice in advising me on the electric part of things. Sometimes even my blue tape doesn't stick so that got me to worrying about the tape wire - I know many have had no issues but I felt round wire was more sturdy.

rbysty, great, thank you for your help. I've got the biggest transformer Cir-Kit makes. I also read somewhere you don't want more transformer than you need for some reason --- can't remember-- is that true? With the Newport with the extension I will need the biggest transformer I'm pretty sure. With my daughter's Painted Lady, we may not need the that one. Thank you for linking that article, great info!

[BriJohn]

Since we're talking electrical and I don't have anyone else in real life who may be impressed with this, I wanted to tell yall about the wonderful wiring job this gentleman had done on this house I saw on ebay several months ago. He had done it long ago - the seller had an old newspaper article about him and the house. He had an electrical room in an attic and that room was hinged and had shingles so you didn't see it. Then there was a flat panel you could see and it had all these silver switches, oh, I guess about 1/2" to 3/4" long maybe, big enough to flip.  There were like 12 of them so I was guessing that each room ran on it's own power and you could switch each room on and off! I was so impressed with that. I thought it might be kind of cool to have each level of the house wired seperately and then have three silver metal switches at the base of the dollhouse so each level of the house could run independently. I'm kind of daydreaming out loud here. Wonder where you could even get those vintage looking silver switches - like a toggle sort of.

[Debra from Olde Cape Cod]

Toggle switches. My dad used to use those for lots of projects....I would say Radio Shack if you can still find one that's open....

[havanaholly]

The Radio Shack franchisees may still have stores open.  The company and its stores are defunct.

[BriJohn]

Thanks, ladies. I have one more question. Feeder wire. In my instruction booklet, they suggest using thicker gauge wire and running it in deep grooves along the face of the back of the dollhouse and then using the thin white circuit wire to branch off the thick "feeder wire." The thick feeder wire takes the power along all the rooms of the house jumping off with the white thin circuit wire to the fixtures. The thick feeder wire is what they attach to the plug in strip or the terminal block. Why do this? I was planning on cutting my white "circuit" wires long enough to go from my fixtures all the way down to my terminal block.

In the Cir-Kit instruction booklet they use headless pins to create electrical connections from the thin white circuit wire the thick feeder wire. This seems like creating more areas for something to go wrong?