After having a busy time at work, I was able to find some time (LOL) to work with my signals, as you can see they are 3 aspect signals, the one on the right will be governing the mainline, while the one on the left will govern the diverging. Im still having trouble,all I want is to have the signals govern the right tracks, I can’t even get them to lite up, I’ve hooked them up to my Tortise, but they are dark I know I have aske before, but could someone please help. Im very frustrated, I was told that I would need a SD 1 Block detector, and since I have two signals I would need two of them!! I feel like I’am getting over my head, should I just keep it simple and use one signal,??I thought I Would go directly from my Tortise to TWO signals, if that is possible, Thanks for letting my vent, inhale— exhale,[banghead]
Well, Mr. Obvious has to ask … HOW did you hook them up to your Tortoise machine ? Are they LEDs or bulbs ?
My second concern is the installation. Signals are always mounted offset to the right of the track so the engineer can see them. Making matters worse is the fact the signals are on a left-hand curve, there’s no way the engineer would ever be able to see that left signal. If that left track is a passing track, a more appropriate installation would be a dwarf signal mounted between the two tracks to govern the siding.
Signals can be mounted on the oposite side of the track if there is no sufficient clearance in the proper location. If the signal bulbs are LED’s they can be wired two ways, common cathode or common anode. Common cathode has the DC+ to the resistor- LED. The DC- goes to the lead without the resistor. With common anode the DC- goes to the resistor-LED and the DC+ goes to the wire without the resistor. Sometimes if the LED’s all need the same value resistor, One resistor will go in the common wire from the three LED’s
They are LED signals, I used pin 5 as my ground, 6 was used as the red, while the 7 pin was used as the green, my power is from a 12 v power bus, The signals are NJ international brand, the directions for the three aspect called for the yellow lead to be hooked up to the red lead.
The NJ International website unfortunately doesn’t give a whole lot of info regarding wiring their signals. They say all the instructions are included in the package.
My question is: do you have to install resistors in line with the LEDs when you are wiring them directly to a Tortoise? If the signals don’t have built in resistors then you just fried your LEDs. Hopefully not.
I’m not sure what all the OP is asking and what is his main concern.
Is it that the signals do not light?
Is he asking about the need for one or more SD-1 signal drivers?
Or is he concerned over the placement of signals along the mainline?
To me, the first concern would be getting those signals lit. As Dave commented, hopefully those LEDs are protected by resistors. If not, those LEDs will burn out in a flash, literally.
As far as signal drivers are concerned, it all depends upon the type of signal and how it is wired. Incidentally, the SD-1 is not a block detector. For block detection, he would need a BD-1 or BD-2.
We need the OP to come back and tell us how he is attempting to wire these signals and how he has the Tortoise wired. We need a lot more information here.
I have quite a few of the NJ International three color signals and they are wired common anode. They came with the resistors attached to the leads, so I have to put the DC- to the resistor and the DC+ to the common wire without any resistor.
I also use some Atlas G type signals that are wired common cathode, so the DC+ goes to the correct color wire after adding the correct resistor and the DC- goes to the black common wire.
The thing to note here is that the center posts of the two SPDT contact sets on the Tortoise are posts 5 and 6. Physically, we like to think of the “center” as being between the other two, but that is not the case with a Tortoise and frequently causes mis-wiring.
This is a diagram of how I’ve wired my Tortoises to LED signals to show turnout position.
I think we covered this before, but just using the Tortoise contacts can only get you 2-aspect signals. You cna have it show green or yellow depending on the Tortoise position, or green or red, or yellow or red, pick any two colors and be able to switch between them. You can wire two signals to one Tortoise, so that one shows red and the other shows green, so you cna see which track the turnout is lined for. Without getting into block detection and all that, this about all you can do. To get fancier, you need to create detection sections and use block detectors and a signal controller to display the proper aspects, in which case you’d probably need a lot more signals to make anything meaningful. With detection and a controller, the signal at the entrance tot he block the train is in would be red, the next one behind it would be yellow, and the one behind that would show green. That sort of indication you can’t do with just one signal and a Tortoise.
Basically all that can be done is wire like Mr Beasley posted. Doesn;t have to be red and green, could pick any two of the colors. But that’s it. And you could connect two signals to the same contacts so that one would show red while the other is green and vice versa.
Thanks, Randy, but I understand that. I have tons of Tortoises wired to control panel DPDTs and I use the Tortoises to control search light signals and dwarfs and the like.
I am just saying that the OP is not clear about what he is doing with the Tortoise and how he has all of this wired up.
I understand the Tortoise and its wiring. I don’t understand the OP.
I can’t see the pic in the original post, so I’m REALLY in the dark here, but in general you’d see one signal with two heads when approaching a switch with a diverging route. At it’s simplest, each head could display green or red. A signal showing green-over-red would mean the switch is set to the train is going straight on the main route; red-over-green means you’d take the diverging route. You should be able to wire that up with the contacts for the switch machine, but you’ll need some sort of detection circuit so that when the train passes the signal, both heads turn to red. (Red-over-Red means ‘absolute stop’.)
See Mr Beasley’s post then, and wire them that way, ignore the yellow aspect. With his diagram, if you are approaching the switch and it is lined the wrong way, the signal will show red. When it is lines for your route, it will show green.
What kind of signlas are these. BLOCK signals detect the presence of a train in front of you and say nothing about authority to use the track at all.
The HOME signal protects a switch or interlocking plant, in which case there would usually be a switch in plain sight.
At an interlocking plant the HOME signal would normally be RED, and when the signal is cleared by the tower operator it would display green for the normal route or Yellow for a diverging route. The tortoise can select between yellow and green, but the tower operator controls between RED and NOT RED.
If LION was ewe, him would have tested all of this on the bench before bringing it to the layout, just to make sure that everything does work. If you just want indications for a single switch, this is the recommendation of the LION :
If Block signals you want, complicated more it gets :
But then, My signals are more fun than your signals!
Sorry Rich, I’m at work so I only have a brief time to post what I need, my Tortise is wired by a 12 volt power bus, The ground is wired to pin 5, while the green is pin 6 red is pin 7, the yellow I had ( according to NJ international) the yellow is spliced to the red. Somewhere there’s a problem, I could go without the yellow if that helps, could I have wired it wrong from the tortise?? Thanks. I’ Ll post again on my next break, I’m a bus driver here in Portland.
