Hey Gang, I’m looking for some resources for how to wire turnout switches with led indicator lights; how to, what toggles to use, materials for panel construction, etc…Are there any links with diagrams avail?
I’m using DCC, so this panel would be used for turnout control only. Thanks!
I don’t have any specific resources but, The Club I belong to, we are wiring our panels. We are using DC but the same materials could be used. The individual who is wiring the panels is a retired electronics engineer.
We are using masonite as our panels. He is using DPDT siwthces. You do NOT want center off. The switches are wired to one side and the LED’s are wired to the other side of the switch. He has put resitors between a separate power source and the switches.
Craig
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Another thread provided this link. Lots of info.
I’m hoping to avoid the expense of 2200 microfarad capacitors and diodes, etc., or Tortoise switch machines. I understand the Tortoise machines have separate electrical contacts that will do everything necessary, and they are very reliable.
For turnouts I plan to use three- or four-pole double-throw switches. One pole is for the switch machine, one is for the LEDs on the panel, and one is for signal lights on the track. I will use the fourth pole to provide power to the turnout frog, if necessary. Although I could possibly combine the lights all into one circuit, I want to keep them separate for flexibility to use different power supplies or to connect the signal lights to other circuits.
I plan to use a pushbutton in the return (ground) wire of my Atlas switch machines because they require only momentary power to throw the switch, and they will overheat if they receive continuous power. The capacitor discharge scheme described in the web link provides the same function (momentary power). My method is primitive, but it works. In operation, I throw the toggle and then press the pushbutton. One downside is that it’s easy for the turnout to get out of sync with the toggle switch if someone manually operates the turnout at any time, forgets to press the pushbutton, or throws the toggle switch while the layout is turned off. After powering up the layout I press all the pushbuttons to make sure the turnout positions agree with the toggle positions.
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If you’re using Tortoise machines they have some good disgrams on their website and on the insstruction sheet that comes with the machine
Another good how-to link is:
Click on More circuits and follow the links to see several different turnout indicator circuits. The only downside is these use the dreaded center off toggle switches, which do not remain the last position thrown. But then, that’s what the LED indicators are for…
I’ve built a few of these indicator circuits and are very happy with them.
Here’s a link to how I build my panels. On this one I chose to use stationary DCC decoders to drive the Tortoises but toggle switches will work. it may give you some additional ideas.
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The Simple 3-Wire Indicator Circuit shown in Figure 2 on the referenced page is what I described in my previous post. Thank you very much for that info. It’s much more complete than what I said.
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