Does anyone on this site have a Heljan RTR turntable. If you do, how does it work
The reason I ask is that Heljan made both the turntable and also its electronics for Walthers.
I remember reading, and experiencing the long delays in the productrion of the dlectronics for the second batch of turntables. Walthers had even announced the turntable itself was ready, the delay was due to the programing of the electronics. This was thought to be a short delay, but it was not.
I had ordered one and had to wait almost two years before one of the new DCC RTR units was available. I had read that the turntable itself had changed very little, the electronics had changed.
Al the time people were waiting for the release of the new Walthers truntables the Heljan turntables with their own electronics were being sold. I almost bought one, but the length of the turntable was 14". which was too long for my layout which had been designed around the shorter 90’ Walthers turntable.
In retrospect I wish I had bought the Heljan turntable and rhen realigned my layout to accomodate it.
I believe the other difference is that if you hook up the TT to the DCC bus (as I did-via the control box per instructions) you can continue control of the loco on the table with the throttle. As I said, I still control the TT itself with the control box. Reliable, easy combination.
Dante
P.S. I strongly agree with those who cover the table to protect from detritus, etc. I bought a large and deep food dish cover from Party City. Otherwise, if you have to remove the table to clean the unit periodically, you have to relocate the “0” position each time.
Not if you operate in manually (i.e., that is, without the indexing feature).
Rich
Yes, there is Atlas, but Walthers is pretty much the only game in town unless you want to build a craftsman kit or spend very big bucks (or both). I would see if they will replace the turntable for the extra $100.00, hold your nose and call it good…
Guy
Dante,
I finally got my upgraded 90’ turntable back last week, installed it, relaid the tracks and began programming it. At the moment I have three lead in/out tracks and two of nine radial tracks programmed. I was up against the dinner bell but took the time to instruct end A to move from track 9 to track 7, the adjactnt trackto the left (counter clockwise for my track numbering scheme). The TT bridge went clockwise or 350 degrees around the pit. I hope I can figure out how to correct that.
Otherwise, I like the control pad better than the earlier one but why can’t Walthers design a bos that you can mount in a control panel? The bridge does, indeed, stop exactly where programmed–no overshoot and come back.
I have a Nscale Walthers turntable from the first run and a CMR 130’ turntable.
The Walthers turntable works quiet well but not as good as I wanted.
Both are controlled by NYRS indexing system control, because in Nscale you need extremly precise control and alignement of the brigde whith the tracks; 1mm is a big gap in n scale!
However the system is not cheap but his precision and reliability in time are valued whith the price.
You can find more infos on www.nyrs.com
These control are precision device using a step by step motor control and the construction is very robust.
Marc
They also offer DCC contol for this system
I don’t know what happened to my response to Roger’s latest, but for what it’s worth I repeat it here:
“Glad to read that you’re back in business. I have no explanation for our difference in the movement of the TT. I reread the instructions and experimented with my control. My table consistently rotates in the shortest direction to the designated track.”
Dante
I purchased the Whalthers N 130’ DCC TT, about 6 Mos. ago. I just recently installed it on my layout. I did all the Programming and it works fine. I haven’t cleaned it yet but as the instructions suggest, to use the factory programmed #1 stop as the lead in track I cannot as I have my roundhouse tracks at stop #1. needless to say the turntable (mine) seems to only want to travel in one direction, (clockwise) it always comes to a complete and total stop in the NO TRACK AREA, thus requiring me to re-calibrate and start over. VERY FRUSTRATING!, I’m sure I will figure this problem out. I wish Walthers would have installed an overide switch to be on manual control so as not to rely on the turntables’ programming. Does anybody Know what the two grey buttons are for that are not labled on the control box?
can I disable the indexing function on my N scale 130’ walthers tt?
Finally got my upgraded TT installed and programmed for three lead in tracks and nine radial tracks. Most of the time the bridge takes the shortest route to the desired track but not always. I guess I have to live with that quirk.
One problem remains, however: I get a short moving locomotives on or off the bridge. The loco runs fine on all of the tracks leading to the pit and they run fine on the bridge. But crossing the gap, the locos stop due to a short. When I push the locos fully on or off the bridge, the circuit breakers reset themselves and all is fine until I try to move a loco on or off the bridge.
Any ideas?
Well, just got off the phone with Walthers Tech. support, My turntable issues are due to bad electronics under the pit. I was instructed to go under the layout remove the screws holding the control board, and return the defective board to Walthers for replacement. I had programmed it correctly and it should not have stopped and short circuited in the NO-TRACK area. If anyone out there has recently purchased the N Scale 130’ DCC TT, Beware of issues that do not seem normal. Walthers will gladly repair or replace any defective parts.
I sometimes had the same shorting problem with certain locos. Although I never could determine exactly why the short, I adjusted the rail height of the leads to make sure their tops were very flush with the bridge rails and the shorts disappeared. The differences in height weren’t obvious to casual observation but apparently caused the problem in some manner.
Dante
The shorts are gone. By telephone the Walthers technician was able to deduce what the problem was–what he called a polarity issue. He had me switeh the DCC power wires to the control box which fixed the problem. Thanks Walthers!