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Yellow feed wire for digital decoders - Best practice for yellow wire on digital decoder
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Offline Darren  
#1 Posted : 31 December 2025 04:00:38(UTC)
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Darren

Canada   
Joined: 04/02/2025(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: Alberta, Calgary
Hello,
I am delving into installing switch motors and digital decoders into my switches. I found the standard switches fairly straight forward to do but I have some questions when I started on the double slip switch and 3-way switch. What is the best practice for connecting the yellow wire that feeds the decoder? The manual shows it being connected to the track but there is an alternative option to power it separately. Is one option better than the other? I noticed on the double slip switch the tab is not there on to connect the yellow wire and I will have to connect it on the next piece of track or power it separately.

Thank you

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Offline Crazy Harry  
#2 Posted : 31 December 2025 15:31:35(UTC)
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Crazy Harry

Canada   
Joined: 18/11/2008(UTC)
Posts: 506
Location: Oakville, Ontario
Originally Posted by: Darren Go to Quoted Post
What is the best practice for connecting the yellow wire that feeds the decoder? The manual shows it being connected to the track but there is an alternative option to power it separately. Is one option better than the other? I noticed on the double slip switch the tab is not there on to connect the yellow wire and I will have to connect it on the next piece of track or power it separately.


Hi Darren,

Running the switch machines from track power adds to the load on the digital system. If you have a big layout, a lot of switches, locomotives and rolling stock with lights you will approach the current load limit of your controller. In the case of medium size and larger layouts people usually run a separate 16VAC accessory bus for lighting and such; this would be where you would connect the yellow wire from switch machines.

The best option really depends on the size of your layout and if you want to run an additional power bus for accessories.

Hope this helps,

Harold.
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thanks 2 users liked this useful post by Crazy Harry
Offline marklinist5999  
#3 Posted : 31 December 2025 15:39:04(UTC)
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marklinist5999

United States   
Joined: 10/02/2021(UTC)
Posts: 4,109
Location: Michigan, Troy
Re; digital load on system. Not so much with a CS3. I have two M83's on track power for turnouts.
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Offline Darren  
#4 Posted : 31 December 2025 20:52:58(UTC)
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Darren

Canada   
Joined: 04/02/2025(UTC)
Posts: 4
Location: Alberta, Calgary
Thank you for the responses.

One thing that confuses me is that manual that came with the decoder it says to use max 20V DC connected to the yellow wire. The accessory power is 16V AC so will this work?

Thank you
Darren
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