fender Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 after having lovingly wired up my layout with nice new tortoise motors, and having meticulously planned the wiring and triple-checked everything, I discovered that the switches move the turnout blades counter-intuitively. I wired them so that the switch direction points to the live road, but this of course means that the actual blades move in the other direction. I hadn't thought of this being an issue, and it's not a big deal, but I was just wondering how most people have this set up. to visually "push" (or pull) the blades in a certain direction, or to be able to see the live roads by simply looking at the control panel? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 Swap the connections so that they do point correctly - really not a big job Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenton Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I wire them so that, in the "off" position the point is set to normal route - whatever that means. But I don't think it matters much, especially if it is only you operating. If lots of others operate the layout then having some sort of indicator lights on a panel diagram might well prevent big mishaps. But, let's face it, unlike the real world, what is the worst that is going to happen? A signalling heretic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian335 Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I operate a number of my club's layouts and find it's easiest when the switch is arranged to indicate direction of travel. Having the switches set to indicate blade travel direction is also quite common but generally leads to confusion - mine! An alternative I came across at the Nene Valley Railway was the idea which Kenton mentions above of having say the 'On' position of the switch reflect 'Normal'. The problem with this is that you have to know the layout very well before the switching makes sense. My personal preference is to have a mimic panel with centre off non latching switches. These stand to attention thus giving no sense of direction but then I have 3mm LED's mounted in the panel to show me which way I last switched the points. If I can follow a line of green lights through my chosen route then it should be ok to proceed. Of course, it doesn't tell you that the point has successfully thrown - for that you would need additional electronics and micro switches. Alternatively I believe motors such as the Tortoise ones come with those built in. You pays yer money as they say. Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
corax67 Posted January 3, 2014 Share Posted January 3, 2014 I have operated many club layouts with differing systems and have found most favour a repeater panel of some description with LED route markers and wherever possible the switch levers showing "up" for the straight on route. I have adopted a similar system on my own DCC layout where the main board has tortoise point motors powering LEDs in a mini Perspex panel clipped onto the side for a quick visual reference and the fiddle yard utilises Seep point motors with in-built switches controlling a red & green LED mounted into each buffer stop to show which road is live at any time. The point decoders can be operated from my DCC handset or by a plug-in manual switch panel I made up. I much prefer an illuminated panel. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fender Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 ok thanks. just wondering how other people had them set up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 You might find some useful info here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/38589-control-panels-show-us-yours/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.