I bought the proper connectors for my Tortoises from Litchfield Station. After the wires are soldered, the tortoise seems shorted as read with an ohmmeter. Removing the connector from the Tortoise and reinstalling it cures the problem. There are only 8 pins and I am only using the outer two for now. There does not seem to be an excess of end play between the tortoise edge connector and the ends of the Litchfiels connector. Anybody know why this is happening?
Some connector are built to better specifications than others.
One way that you may be able to fix the problem is to insert a small piece of plastic strip at each end of the connector to keep the Tortoise fingers lined up correctly. Basically, fill up the space at the ends that causes the slop or mismatch.
A better question is: why are you using an edge connector in the first place? You’re soldering to the connector, why not solder to the Tortoise?
At my club, we pre-wire all Tortoise machines on the bench with 8-conductor wire about 12-18" long. The Tortoise is installed, and we locate a 8 position terminal strip nearby. The 8-cond. wire is then screwed to the terminal strip, which isolates the Tortoise from damage if the wire runs are accidently jerked. The terminal strip is also where the frog and indicator wires are attached.
Since Tortoise machines seem to last forever, edge connectors are a waste of money, IMHO. I’d understand if they had to be replaced constantly, but I’ve installed literally hundreds of machines at my club in the past 10 years, and I’ve never had a failure.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Paul, I use connectors becausi I am installing the Tortoises by feel. (I work from a wheelchair) and the wires soldered to them get in the way. I pre wire the connectors and then can reverse them if the direction is wrong.
Bruce,
Ah. I see. That being said, I have also installed Tortoise machines by feel with the 8-cond. wire attached, and it didn’t seem to make much difference. Of course, I’m not you and our layout isn’t yours, so take it for whatever that’s worth. [:)]
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
I can see why you don’t want to use wires to a terminal strip, Bruce, but how about this. Attach a sturdy connector with very positive seating which can’t be reversed or put in crooked or with any slop, like a Molex connector, to the Tortoise edge connector with very short wires. Then put the other half of the Molex on the control wires. I’ve got some Molex connectors on my layout and they’re easy to put together by feel without looking at them. Just a thought.