tortoise switch failure ?

[ereimer]

this info was posted on the digitrax yahoo group , i thought it was worth passing along

QUOTE: Our club has over 220 Tortoises installed, some for nearly 10 years.

Recently, we have had three failures in the electrical conductivity
through the Tortoise contacts.

We went one to our local electro-mechanical vet, who performed
an operation to diagnose and repair the problem:

http://www.emraonline.ca/electrical/tortoise.shtml

For those who don’t want to see the gory medical details, the
diagnosis is that heat buildup due to shorts on the output
cause the contact wipers to heat enough to loosen the
plastic tabs that hold them in place. Adding a screw
to each wiper solves the problem and restores the Tortoise.

[ClinchValleySD40]

Good report, thanks. Do you modify the traces at all? I had some issues early on with “make before break” on the contacts. Simple 5 minute fix to cut the trace.

[cwclark]

thank you for the input…I have a couple of tortoises that have wipers that don’t work, i think the draw back for me fixing them is the sign that states: if the seal is broken the warranty is voided…(it’s sort of along the same lines as removing the tags…(federal offense stuff)… on a pillow or mattress) but when they don’t work, they don’t work and they need fixing…looks easy enough…i’ll give it a try…(you’d think for what they charge you for a tortoise machine, they could come up with something better than a wiper type relay)…chuck

[davekelly]

Looks like a simple fix! While such failures are frustrating, I think having 200 of the things for 10 years (on a club layout!) and having only 3 failures is a fantastic track record. Not too shabby!!