Hey all you electronic people, I need a little help here. I used E-Z Track ( I know, I know [:I]) and am having a problem with the switches that came with the turnouts. I hope I’m making sense. You know, push the switch to the left or right and push down, the turnout switches directions. The switches seem to be failing. Could I use a mini-toggle to do the same thing? I was thinking a DPDT that is momentary-off-momentary might work. Am I right?
Part 2- If I’m on the right track, anyone know where I can get them. I treid Allelectronics and DigiKey, but couldn’t find them. The Radio Shack wants big $$$$. There has got to be somewhere I can get them for little $$. Any leads???
Everyone have a wonderful holiday season and a safe, healthy, happy New Year!!! [:P]
sure can, but i think a SPDT would suit you better as you are only switching the hot lead betwen two sides of the coil and both sides of the coil return on a common line. You can also opt to go 2x SPST pushbuttons as they maybe cheaper (mouser has em at $0.58 per in lots of 10).
Instead of a toggle switch, you could use two momentary push button switches, as someone has already mentioned. Depending on how many you need, these usually come in a 4-pack at Radio Shack, or you can get them in bulk from All, Mouser, or other mail order sources.
Get rid of the junk E-Z track and replace it with quality ATLAS track and your problems will be solved!!!
If you want to use a toggle switch to control ANY turnout you will need one that is “Sprung” so that it won’t stay in one position so you won’t burn out the switch machine.
Thank you to all who answered. I buy alot of stuff from AllElectronics, but didn’t see a momentary-off-monentary mini-toggle at the time.
I really haven’t had any problems with the E-Z Track, it’s just that while working on the layout, I kept smacking the switches with a chair! I’m not going to throw out all the money I spent on the E-Z track right now. Next layout I’ll try something different. The E-Z track is fine for now,
Again, thanks for your help, ideas, and leads!
Happy holidays and a safe, healthy New Year to all! [;)]
There’s another method that was used by some people years ago but seems to have fallen into disfavour. The advantages are that it’s cheap as dirt, foolproof, won’t break down and won’t burn out your switch machines. So it’s caveman technology, so what?
Wherever you would normally put a pushbutton, that is 2 for each turnout, mount a small machine screw (bolt) in the panel with a nut on the back. Using a second nut to hold the wire to the machine screw, run a wire from there to the hot terminals of the turnouts. Wire the common terminals of the turnouts to one side of the power source. Bring the other side of the power source out to a probe with enough wire on it to reach all the screw heads. You can buy a pair of probes as replacement probes for multimeters or you can make your own out of a dowel or piece of styrene tubing and some wire. The wire should be very flexible. To operate a turnout, just touch the tip of the probe to the head of the machine screw for that turnout. It can’t get any more simple or cheaper!