I know this topic may have been covered, but i am getting ready to install some tortoises. i will run a separate power source to the machines using a DPDT for each. i think i have the wiring down from the DPDT to the tortoise, but what would be recommended for the power source? i have seen some radio shack reco’s, but specifically, what am i looking for when i go in there, a dc power pak? Sorry if this question seems remedial, but wiring is my weakness!
thanks a bunch
jaretos
Hi Jaretos,
I buy my electronic stuff from www.allelectronics.com where the prices are great! I got my spdt switches from them. If you go to their website, scroll down to “transformers” on their list of products on the right of the screen. Click on transformers and then, scroll down within transformers and you’ll find a 12v dc wall transformer that is 500 miliamp. It is only $4.00 plus shipping. You plug it into a wall and then feed the two wires from it to your panel and then from the dpdt switch to your tortoises.
When you build your panel for your dpdt switches, you may want to consider installing LED’s. I use red and green LED’s where the red represents “off the mainline” and the green represents the mainline. All Electronics sells the LED’s real cheap as well as the LED holders which set into a hole drilled in the panel.
If you need help figuring out how to wire the LED’s, email me and I’ll give you my phone number so I can explain. It would be difficult to tell you here.
Hope this helps.
Mondo
here are a series of pictures I took with explanations to show how to wire and install a tortoise machine…just click the next button to see each step by step procedure…hope it helps … http://community.webshots.com/photo/137793353/245295018tpquTj
I use and old tyco D/C power pack to run mine with the throttle turned up to only 20 mph which is about 8 volts output. …i have over 30 tortoise machines on the one power pack…chuck
You may get mixed results using an old power pack though - I think you got lucky there, Chuck. I have an old MRC pack I was using until I got a real power supply (well, made one, converted an old computer power supply - that’s enough power for 1000 Tortoises…overkill, but it cost me $5 in parts at radio shack). With my MRC pack, the voltage at just about any setting went to the full open circuit voltage - I wasn’t able to reduce it - simply because the load of the Tortoises was too small. It was like controlling N scale locos with an HO pack - as soon as you get off the STOP setting, it goes full bore. A transistor pack wouldn’t have this problem - but why buy or use a $50 power pack for something a $9 wall wart will do?
It’s worth trying, if you have the old power pack. If it works - great. If not - it won’t hurt anything. If it doesn’t work, Radio Shack has some 9V wall-wart power supplies that will work great. The 500ma one can run a good 25 or so Tortoises, the 1amp one, 50 or more.
–Randy
What I used was an old AC adaptor from my discarded answering machine. I have a collection of these adaptors in a box just waiting to be used for something.
I ran 12 Tortoise machines off of one without any problems.
Hope this helps…Ken
you should install a simple diode from radio shack (if you don’t know how to wire them, put two of them together in parallel with the bands around each of them in opposite directions) in the wiring if you are using A/C power…tortoise recommends that you use D/C to power them and diodes will convert the A/C to D/C by removing the half wave of A/C…a bridge rectifier will also work …chuck