There’s really no limit to the number of LEDs you want for showing your route clearly. Even though I don’t have each track labeled here (yet) you can follow the route of the green LEDs here pretty easily. I don’t have a wider shot of the panel in photobucket but I can post one if needed to show the bigger view of the model board.
You can see you are lined for diverging from the top main crossing all the way down to the second diverging route into Union Station (label got cropped) the “orange” LED is supposed to be red but the flash discolored it.
The three rotary switches control two Tortoises on double slip switches. A=straight; B=diverge L; C=diverge R and D=cross diagonal. four LEDs show each double slip and two LEDs show each regular turnout.
Wiring is simple only on one leg of the supply to the Tort
Harold I still think you have it correct just maybe a bad led but how are you reading voltage across 3-4 and 5-6 do you have other connections not shown
Please forgive my lack of understanding of things electrical, but I don’t see how either the Tortoise nor the LEDs have any thing to do with the zero volts DC read at points 3 and 4.
As I see the diagram, DC power comes in at points 5 and 6 and then gets jumpered to points 1 and 2 on the toggle switch. They should all read the same voltage. When the toggle is thrown points 3 and 4 get directly connected to either points 1 and 2 or 5 and 6. Therefore they, points 3 and 4, should read the same voltage as the points to which they are connected.
If there really is a reading of 0 volts at points 3 and 4, either the toggle switch is bad, or the OP has not changed the meter leads to account for the reverse polarity.
maxman I think you are correct I was looking at the connections on the tortoise not the toggle from the readings he states it may be the toggle is bad or like you say the meter leads
It’s been awhile since I last tested a DPDT toggle switch, so I pulled out my voltmeter and conducted a test. Testing for DC voltage is, of course, polarity sensitive.
Harold was probably guilty of not flipping his two meter probes on the 3 and 4 terminals on the DPDT. Every time that you flip that toggle, the positive (+) and negative (-) polarities are reversed, so those meter probes need to be reversed as well or you get a zero voltage reading.
In my experience, a DPDT switch rarely, if ever, fails.
When LION trouble shoots a problem, him goes back to the device (The Turnout and the LEDS) and him checks for power and polarity. LION uses a common ground to the BUILDING GROUND. No floating neutral for this LION, for that would be the home to all sorts of stry voltages. GROUND your NEUTRAL!
Then him has only ONE wire to trouble shoot. Voltage and Polarity. Is it there or is it not. Is it supposed to be there, or do you have a voltage that does not belong there. LION has SIX different power supplies on the layout of him. All have a common GROUND, lbut each has its own purpose for being.
LION has found incontinuities in the most wierdest of places. Him finds them by slow metheodical testing testing testing of the circuit in question. For example, LION uses naild as binding posts for solder connections. In one location the nails were toching INSIDE of the wood. That one took a while to figuire out. LION clipped both ends of the circuit, and still had voltage on it. Him kept clipping wires until him came to the offending nail.
Circuits are like that. Test Test Test. In another location a lead from a reed switch was touching the power rail, putting power on a circuit that should have been dead.
Test Test Test. LION could tell more, but ewe get the idea.
Harold good to know it was simple fix And Lion I worked for a RR in the signal dept for over 25 yrs Have worked on everything from solid state up to 3 phase elec Had to take classes each yr and I would never use the building earth ground too many risks to equip that way
maxman, I agree with you. It does not explain the zero voltage nor does it adress LION and Randy’s contention that the LED is simply wired in reverse. Just one more mystery thread on the Electronics and DCC forum.
Sure it does - the bas solder joint was not on pins 3 or 4, it was on one of the cross wires. So, flip switch one way - the way that connects the input to the center, you get a reading. Flip it the other way, where it has to pass through the X wires, except the one of the X wires is not correctly attached, loose, whatever - now there will be no voltage at 3 and 4.
I go for the reversed LED because that’s USUALLY the easier thing to mess up than a basic solder joint [:D] Heck, usually if you crimp the wires on the switch lugs tight enough, it ‘works’ before even soldering it.
If he was getting no power because of a bad connection, then neither of the LEDs probably needed to be reversed.
Like I said at the beginning - the DIAGRAM is absolutely correct, it has the correct LED polarities. But actually hooking it up - it’s easy to get one backwards, especially if the leads have been trimmed.
Maybe, but says you, not Harold. He simply said that “the trouble was a poor solder connection at the switch”.
I put the voltmeter probes on #3 and #4 terminals of one my perfectly well soldered DPDT switches and failed to get a reading. Then I flipped the switch and got the expected voltage reading. Flipped the switch again, no reading. Reversed the probes and got the expected voltage reading.
So, at this point, Harold has not explained the zero reading on his switch.
And, we are left to believe that correcting the poor solder joint solved the problem without having to do anything with the LED conection.
I was going to put a jumper across to check the switch. When I pressed on the lead a noticed the LED came on. I pressed on the wire and it moved. I resoldered the connection and both LEDs work as well as the turnout throw. All of the circuit diagram was correct. There are ten other turnouts wire exactly the same way. As I said in an earier tread before I install the LEDs throught the panel I strip A piece of black and red insulation from a wire and cover the LED leads. That way I know to install the Red lead to the Black lead. It avoid trying to figure which is the Long or Short.
