I’m reworking a control panel where a single 24VDC, 10A supply feeds three drives and about a dozen sensors, and I’m torn between a star off a fused distro block near the PSU or a short trunk with local branches. In EPLAN or AutoCAD Electrical, what panel layout has given you the cleanest routing and least drop — PSU centered with a horizontal rail and 2.5 mm² trunk kept under 300 mm, or PSU top-left with a vertical feed and left-to-right loads? Goal is fewer crossovers and <0.5 V drop at the farthest sensor; curious what’s worked for you.
I’ve had the cleanest routing with the PSU mid-panel and a short 4 mm² trunk as the spine, star feeds to the three drives, and local sensor branches through electronic breakers like Mico (https://www.murrelektronik.com/en/products/mico). If the enclosure is long, feed the trunk from the center or both ends to keep drop under about 0.5 V and give 0V a beefy bus to avoid return noise — don’t daisy-chain like Christmas lights.
On a similar 24V/10A panel, I got the cleanest results by splitting the distro: a 4 mm² trunk for the three drives and a separate 2.5 mm² sensor trunk, both returning to a common 0V busbar right by the PSU. In EPLAN, I set a 0.5 V net rule for “least drop” and used feed-through terminals with test disconnects so I could measure drop per branch during FAT. Small caveat: on tall enclosures I run the trunk vertical to shorten stubs, and I upsize to 6 mm² if the drives have chunky inrush.
But it sounds like you’re on the right track with considering a star configuration. I once used a similar layout that helped minimize voltage drop by keeping the main feeds short and thick. Just make sure to account for the total current draw of the sensors; sometimes, I’ve had better results splitting them off on a separate line to manage loads better. @rajKumar85 made a good point about electronic breakers; they can save you headaches down the line.