So I am going with Tortoise brand switch machines as well as with the side mount (remote mount) for the lower profile behind the fascia of the train layout benchwork, also going for the more expensive seperate connector so I don’t have to risk interior components with my newly rediscovered soldering skills (heh).
I’ve had an electronics course in high school so I know the basics already of resistors, capacitors, voltage, amps, etc.
Here is my question. As long as I use option #1 for the switch machine wiring which is the “DC with cross wired DPDT switches” option. I can presumably use just one 12 volt DC power source for a number of switch machines because it looks like they recommend wiring in parallel with this option.
So does anyone know the number of switch machines one can operate concurrently on one 12 volt DC power supply circuit because my other presumption is circuitron presumes one machine at a time operation on a circuit like this vs. loading the circuit with several requests at once.
Also, I have the electronics all on a fairly high quality Surge Protector - UPS, along with partial lighting. Because where I live in Texas sometimes we have power outages during peak usage and I don’t want to find myself in the dark all of the sudden. So no worries on electrical surges with large parallel circuits…I hope.
Make sure the DPDT switch stays in each position to hold the points in place. The motor will not over heat. You can put a red green two lead LED in series with one lead to indicate which direction the turnout is in. No resistor is needed. I liked that feature.
I use MRC Railpower 1370s to power my Tortoises which are controlled by DPDT toggle switches on control panels. The 1370 is an 18 volt power supply. It can easily handle 12 Tortoises. I have a series of six 1370s powering 70 Tortoises as well as a similar number of trackside signals.
And it’s a good idea to add a glass fuse (say, at the 80% of amp rating) in a clip type fuse holder in one of the power supply 12v wires. Better to blow the fuse and replace it than have to find another power supply if you slip up and short the wiring somehow.
Note that the supply that Circuitron sells is rated at 1/2 amp and runs 30 Torti. I bought that type in 2012 just because I felt more comfortable with whatever they provided. Theirs is “filtered” (don’t know if that matters to my systems) but there are also constant voltage types, etc.
It is not so bad if the voltage, with the stall current draw of a number of machines, to be less than 12 volts, as a switch will then move slower. I have 22 Torti on the Circuitron supply and just measured the voltage at 13.1 with all at stall, and nil change during switching of one crossover pair.
EDIT: Comments below remind me that my control panel LED indicators in line with the DPDT mean the Torti are seeing about 2V less; i.e., about 11 volts. The speed is ok for me, maybe faster than protototype(??), but not too quick in my opinion. Of course, with a power supply such as MRCs you can adjust the voltage.
OK, thanks for your feed back everyone this helps, though I think I am going to keep lineside signals out of this for now, they are so tiny in voltage draw I wouldn’t see them as an issue unless I had a large layout. This is in a 10 by 11 foot bedroom and has two levels. The most track (non-yard limit) I have is in the Helix between levels probably. I don’t see a lot of lineside signaling opportunities so will hold off on that until last. Building lighting will be very, very last item…if at all as I usually operate with lights on.
Every so often I have seen where some run them at nine volts for a slower point speed. A LM317 voltage regulator, couple resistors, couple caps on the twelve volt buss. An online calculator will give you the specs.
Yes, with slightly less voltgae the Tortoises runa lot quieter, and still fast enough. Puttinng 2 pair of back to back LEDs in series with the motor (one for the panel, one for a lineside signal) using a 12V supply results in a bit over 8 volts to the Tortoise which is just about perfect.
For my large N-scale layout, I laid the track then tipped the track boards on their side, so that I could more easily wire the Tortoises and track bus lines. - Tonkphilip -
Thats a good idea, they designed it so I can do that or just crawl underneath, the benchwork is almost leg less, getting it’s support almost entirely from the wall studs so I can easily crawl underneath as well…plus they have the wire guides and keepers already in place underneath…just need to thread with wires.
