Somewhere in the future I will build a control panel for my turnouts. The idea is to use tortoise machines and swithes on a control panel OR on the fascia where the turnouts are located. I know that it’s pretty cool to have decoders for every turnout/tortoise but…
1 - It’s expensive to have a decoder at every turnout/tortoise.
2 - And you don’t have a clue what turnout you are using if you don’t have a very good memory. So it’s not user friendly. But that’s only my opinion.
I’m not that good at electrical things. So can someone please show me how to connect all cables to do this? A picture is the best, so I can see this in a graphical way.
Oops. This is my old wiring. I now have LED indicators wired in SERIES with the Tortoise motor leads (Green=normal route, RED=thrown not nec. straight). You also don’t need the cab wiring.
Run 2 wires from the power supply to a DPDT switch and criss-cross terminals on the switch as shown. Run a wire from one middle terminal to an LED to one edge of Tortoise. Do the same for the second wire. If turnout moves in “wrong” direction, turn switch around on panel. If wrong color lights up, swap LEDs.
Terry,
Thanks for th great information. I’m interested in the same project. I can’t get your schematic to enlarge when I click on it, so can’t quite see the detail. Is there a link to see a larger version?
Thanks,
Jack
Unionpacific4018: I’m impressed!! [bow][bow] I was an industrial electronics technician and it reminds me of the beautiful jobs done by our wiremen who installed equipment. They had nothing nice to say about the wiring techniques of us technicians who didn’t have their specialized training, and hated us when we’d disturb their picture-perfect jobs to troubleshoot problems later on.
Electrolove, if you are not that hot at things electrical, have you considered just mechanical turnout controls? There are hundreds of designs, but I think the best one is a small slide switch mounted under the turnout with a rod attached to it going through the fascia with a knob glued to the end. You can use the slide switch to control power to the turnout frog and/or signals. It’s simple and cheap.
Even simpler is a slide switch mounted on the surface next to the turnout., connected directly to the throw rod. Easy to adjust. Weather them a bit and I don’t think they look any worse than a big rivet in the middle of a throw rod, or a screw head attaching a steam loco’s crankshaft, or a big weird hook hanging off a coupler or any of the other unprototypical compromises we make.
Personally I use both extremes: my yard switches have a slide switch next to them. My mainline turnouts are mouse-controlled by a JMRI CTC panel on an old PC (no having to remember switch numbers), connected to Digitrax DS54s controlling Tortoises.
If you operate your layout from the control panel, then put your switch control toggles on the panel as shown by UNIONPACIFIC4018. If however you use a walkaround throttle and follow your trains around the layout, put the toggles on the facia so they will be near where the train is. The tortoise switch machines come with a wiring diagram that shows how to wire them. TBat55’s diagram is also excellent. I prewire my torti before I install them so making the connections is very easy. The wires to drive the machine are simply connected to a DPDT Toggle switch wired like this: (notice a jumper runs from terminal 1 to 6 and from 2 to 5) The center terminals send power to the switch machine. This arrangement should only be used for switch machines made to be under power constantly.
Here are some pics of the prewiring I do for the tortoise machines.
I use radio shack DPDT and put it on my control panel
At the switch machine I use a terminal block (just like Ray) to make replacement and trouble shooting easier. The terminal block I use is radio shack part number 274-679. I’m using an old power pack and have the output set at 11 volts.
I use the same systeam as above,except I have LEDs showing witch way the switch is turned,red for open and green for closed.these are installed right next to my DPDT switch.
Jim:
For my slip switches I have 4 Bi-polar LEDs mounted between the ties to show how the train will go throught the switch. The train will follow the green lights.
Do Ike and Mike get there quicker if they run in tandom?? I have a PFM two truck shay, but it’s been in the box for over 15 years. I like the big steam - 2-8-8-2 and the 2-10-4’s.
Exactly! They are wired just like the diagram in the manual. I am using the extra leads to power the frog on the turnouts. Yes the Tortoise works better with about 9 volts. I am actually using a 16 volt Aristcraft power pak that I happened to have on hand. The machines that I have put into service so far have 2 turnouts controlled from the same switch as they are always thrown together. They are wired in series dropping the voltage to 8 volts each. So far, they are working great. I will use resistors for other Torti as they are added. That one power pak will operate all my DC accesories on the layout. You can get a 9 volt line lump transformer at RS or other electronics stores for about $2 that will operate several tortoise machines so I do not recommend my method for everyone.
I am using old Radio Shack DPDT switches that I removed from the layout when I went to DCC. I have a large supply. LOL Use the On-On type of DPDT (not the center off type). I will let someone else chime in on online sources that might be cheaper than RS.
Space mouse that is impressive, I love it. It is very organized, I wish mine was that clean on the back side.
I use controls at the location on the facia useing radio shack push buttons. I have a board for my yard and use a lead wire from a volt meter to make contact to small nails with wire soldered to back going to switch machine. I use atlas because I want to hear the snap so I know it is thrown. I don’t have a pic of the back of it, but if you take about 45 #20 wires and hold them loosly in your hand you have it.
