Powering a tortoise and frog

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

Hi everyone,

I apologize for the post, I know this subject comes up often but there are a few things I want to clarify before I proceed. To begin, I am going to power the switch machines using an MRC tech ll using DC power, I like this because it is seperate from my digitrax zephyr and will make trouble shooting easier.

  1. Can I power all of the switch machine from one bus coming out of the tech ll? I think the answer is yes but I want make to make sure.

  2. Is it possible to power the frog and move the points from one switch? I think I am going to have to use one DPDT switch to move the points and one SPDT switch to power the frog.

  3. What gauge wire should I use for the bus and fro connecting the tortoise?

FWIW, I am using Atlas N scale code 55 turnouts.

Thanks,

Sean

2

  1. Yes, the Tortoises draw so little power that one old DC power pack will run dozens of them

  2. You cna use the contacts on the Tortoise to power the frogs. Each Tortoise has 2 sets of switch contacts. Use 1 set for the frog power and the other set is still free for something else. The Tortoise control toggles need only control the Tortoise.

  3. SInce Tortoises draw such low power, telephone type wire (around 24 or 26 guage) is plenty.

–Randy

3

Randy,

Thank you for the reply, it cleared up my confusion and will reduce the amount of wiring I will need to do!

Sean