Hello,
Ive bought Walthers H0 933-2850 130 Motorized Turntable DCC some days later (in delivery now).
Mounting template turntable noted 10 degrees angles on each step of stop position.
I would like to install the roundhouse tracks at 5 degrees and 30 minutes, or 6 degrees angles.
Is it possible to turn bridge at 5 degrees and 30 minutes or 6 degrees angles on each step and what I must do for it?
My DCC system is NCE Power Pro 5 Amp set.
Sincerely,
Valeriy.
The stops can be programmed where you want them. There is a ‘no stop’ area that is dead for the reverser. The template is for aligning the stall tracks for the Walthers roundhouse kit.
Thank you for your reply. It is a good information. I hope enclosed instructions describes this programming method, is not it?
Yes, there are programming instructions included. The turntable doesn’t have fixed positions. ie you install your tracks and then programme the turntable to the track positions.
The instructions can be a little confusing. If you have any problem you could ask again on this forum.
Bill
It is very important to mark the ‘no track’ areas and then DON’T put any tracks in those areas. The reason being the electronic reversing (when the bridge tracks change direction after 180 degrees of rotation) has a dead spot when there is no power to the bridge and therefore if you had a track in that area you would not be able to run the engine/loco on or off the bridge. I marked those areas on the plywood with a sharpie when installing my approach and roundhouse tracks so I would be sure to stay clear of them. They are noted on the template. The best way I found to do this is layout all the tracks you want/plan to have around the tt and then rotate the template until you find a place where the ‘no track’ area is clear of any tracks and then position the tt pit for mounting.
-Bob
Thank you Bill and Bob. Your opinion is important for me.
Valeriy.
While it is true that the ‘no track’ areas do not provide power, that did not stop me from laying track on either side of the no track area. For display purposes, I put a tender and crane car on one dead track and some ballast cars on the other dead track.
Rich
Good idea, Rich. Thank you.
Valeriy.
Yes, that is a good idea Rich. One other point while we are talking about extra tracks, I added a couple of short (2") tracks opposite the main approach tracks in case one of my Big Boys or other articulated locos overruns the bridge; it won’t go off the track.
-Bob
At the risk of drifting off the immediate topic, I once had a situation where I had installed approach tracks to the Walthers 130’ turntable from both sides of a double ended freight yard. Although the split ring turntable assembly acts as an auto-reverser, I needed to install a separate auto-reverser on one of the approach tracks. Why? Because both approach tracks were on the same side of the no-track zone, so the turntable did not rotate sufficiently to enable the split ring to “detect” reverse polarity.
Rich
Very prototypical, actually, to have tracks opposite one another like that. For the same reason, too.
–Randy
Thank you for all messages. And one more question.
What is the better to operate turntable by Walthers control box or by DCC system cab (as my NCE Procab)?
Valeriy.
Disclaimer: I don’t have one, but I fully comprehend the instruction manual
It seems rather awkward to me to control the thing via the DCC throttle. But then, I’m not a big fan of controlling turnouts via the throttle either. It just seems much simpler to me to select the track i want on the control box rather than fiddle with switching to accessory control mode on the throttle and back.
Call me a Luddite if you will (but consider all the electronics I have involved with my trains…), but my favorite turntable ont he club layout is the one that’s right up front and controlled via a simple DC throttle, there is no indexing. You line tracks up by eye. The main turntable on my proposed layout will similarly be right up front, both to show off the locos while spinning then and to make it easy to see the track alignment without using any expensive or complicated indexing methods.
–Randy
I have the older Walthers 130’ non-DCC turntable. On that one, you operate the indexing feature and select the desired track through the use of the control box.
However, I no longer bother with the indexing feature. I manually find the desired track by holding down the button on the control box. It is actually faster and more accurate that way and, of course, more prototypical.
Rich
An observation. When we first installed our turntable the control box was under the layout so we had to use the DCC throttle (NCE also). Later we installed the box on the fascia so users can use either.
Most now seem to use the box.
We have had an issue with ours. Every now and then it loses programming and won’t align to the correct track. It seems that this follows a short on the layout. A calibrate will put it right but occasionally I have to completely re-programme.
Sometimes I think manual operation with eyball alignment might be better.
Bill
After a lot of track misalignments and re-programming operations, I finally gave up and resorted to manually aligning the bridge track with the roundhouse tracks. I was surprised at how fast and accurately I could align the tracks. So, I never went back to the automatic indexing.
Rich
If the turntable being powered from your DCC bus, or do you have an independent power supply for it (not the bridge rails, the power feed for the electronics)? Noise and shorts on the DCC track power lines can cause the memory to be scrambled, this seems to also happen with some stationary decoders like the Digitrax DS64. When you use the DS64 with only the Loconet for commands and power them with a seperate power supply, the problems almost always go away. I suspect the same issue with the DCC turntable. In both cases, it might be fixable if there is room in the circuit to add additional filtering and bypass capacitors, but that means modifying the device and voiding the warranty.
–Randy
It’s all powered from the the DCC bus as per turntable instructions. I think (not 100% sure though) that if it was powered by an independent supply it would not be able to be controlled through the DCC throttle.
I see the new 110’ turntable has quite a different control method.
Bill
[quote user=“rrinker”]
bagal
Valeriy
What is the better to operate turntable by Walthers control box or by DCC system cab (as my NCE Procab)?
An observation. When we first installed our turntable the control box was under the layout so we had to use the DCC throttle (NCE also). Later we installed the box on the fascia so users can use either.
Most now seem to use the box.
We have had an issue with ours. Every now and then it loses programming and won’t align to the correct track. It seems that this follows a short on the layout. A calibrate will put it right but occasionally I have to completely re-programme.
Sometimes I think manual operation with eyball alignment might be better.
Bill
If the turntable being powered from your DCC bus, or do you have an independent power supply for it (not the bridge rails, the power feed for the electronics)? Noise and shorts on the DCC track power lines can cause the memory to be scrambled, this seems to also happen with some stationary decoders like the Digitrax DS64. When you use the DS64 with only the Loconet for commands and power them with a seperate power supply, the problems almost always go away. I suspect the same issue with the DCC turntable. In both cases, it might be fixable if there is room in the circuit to add additional filtering and bypass capacitors, but that means modifying the device and voiding the warranty.
&nb
Mine is power by a separate regulated power supply and have had no problems with the programming in the 4-5 years I have owned it. I am very pleased with the overall design and operation. I have it located close to the layout edge (about 24") but it is getting a little difficult for me to see that well for manual alignment. About once or twice a year I have to run the zero/home sequence if one of the tracks is ‘off’ when using the automatic search.
-Bob