If you added an inexpensive momentary pushbutton (normally open) to the negative (-) wire going just to the center terminal of the Atlas twin coil, you can eliminate the constant voltage across the twin coil and still have power to the LED side of the circuit.
If the button had 2 poles, you could wire it into the outside terminals…
I’ve seen this on control panels before, that is, a push button mounted right beside the toggle. Works similar to an Atlas Control switch, flip the toggle and then pu***he button to make the change.
What difference would that be from say wiring your switch normally and just adding a spst switch next to it? Flip the switchs up: open the turnout; turn on light. Flip the switches down: close the turnout, turn off light.
Can rbturner’s circuit run on AC instead of DC? Does the latching relay require DC? I know that LEDs generally are used on DC circuits, but they’ll work just fine on AC (in my very limited experience). My concern is that I’m using a Circuitron Snapper to power my Atlas UTT switch machines, and that unit outputs AC, doesn’t it?
spacemouse says:
What difference would that be from say wiring your switch normally…
scada:
I don’t know what you mean by ‘normally’ but if you mean the way the schematic has it, the difference is that it keeps the power from running through the coils of the switch machine all the time. The way I described would be just like the Atlas Control Switches meaning, slide the switch to the left (or right) and push in momentarily to change the position of the switch. If you run DC to your controls you probably don’t notice the constant power on the coil unless you touch it and feel how hot its getting. But if you ran AC you would hear the coil ‘chatter’ until you released the power.
dehct says:
Can rbturner’s circuit run on AC instead of DC?
scada:
yes, AC or DC, but watchout for the constant power on the switch machine coils…
dehct also says:
My concern is that I’m using a Circuitron Snapper to power my Atlas UTT switch machines, and that unit outputs AC, doesn’t it?
scada:
I don’t know about the Circuitron, but every cheap power supply that comes with a train set has DC terminals to run your train and AC terminals to run the switches and other accys… AND the Atlas remote Snap switches come with a controller ‘designed’ to apply momentary power to the turnout machine.