Anyone else building their own signal activators? Do most of you buy them prebuilt, or homemade? I’m talking devices to activate/deactivate railroad crossing signals, block signals, etc. Either way, anyone have a good source for either? I’ve found a web site that looks pretty good, but am woundering where everyone else goes. The site I found is Model railroad and Misc. Electrotronics.
This is an area we’re getting into as well. A bunch of Circuitron detection and signal driver boards came our way at a great price. There’s a lot of info to digest in regard to signalling. If you want two aspects it’s fairly simple but three aspects tend to complicate things somewhat. How bad do you want that yellow?As for us, it’s gonna be three aspect for the most part.
I’m thinking of just magnetic sensors, relays and signal lights ( two aspect ) for my wee layout, two track mainline except for the bridge. One train will have to wait for the other when running in opposite directions. BLI loco’s have dc conversion, they will stop when they loose DCC signal and only have DC. ( do all decoders have dc conversion?)
has anybody else done this 
I’ve just been experimenting with DCC/ DC sections and it works!! depending on which way round the diode is, train continues at same speed thru isolated section (no DCC control) or train stops with DCC momentum settings.
I had to lengthen the DCC packet time out CV11 so train continues thru the DC section.
Ken.
I would really consider NOT using magnetic detectors. They seem to me to be intensive in the use of magnets and modifications to the engines. Consider electronic or photo dectctor methods. Also, check over the MRR mags in the last few years. There have been several articles on signaling. Check out:
http://www.ida.net/users/tetonsl/railroad/
Check out articles by Bruce Chub - and I think he runs an outfit called JLC enterprises. (named for his wife - I think) Check for a website for himn too.
I have a little knowledge of electronics, and am building a “train order signal” for a project. This will include a power supply , detectors, logic module, and signal driver. As I perfect it, I may post info about it.
Personaly, I would avoid magnets, but that is my preference.
Good Luck
Randy
I was going with IR detectors. They work well, even in the light, and have a decent responce time.
I saw a couple of kits for about 25$ US (for crossing signals) that I was thinking of getting and try out. I’ll price out the parts list first and see which is a better deal. I’ll post my results when I know.
I hope you guys a talking about block lites?I also would like to see an article on an IF detectors.RED and GREEN would be fine for me!![tup][wow]
JIM