Turnout indication using LEDs

[shortliner]

Found this which might be useful to some of our members

http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=114361

[Caseyjones82]

G'day,

Or you could just use a peco twin micro switch used with a peco solenoid point motor. This simples down the wiring and hits 2 pigeons with the one stone. You can change frog polarity with it and light LED's for route direction.

 

Regards,

Alex

[Pete the Elaner]

Both of those methods require wiring back from the point to the control panel, which sounds like a lot of work to me.

Tortoise point motors work differently. Wiring is reduced (you just change the polarity of the constant DC supply) so you save on 1 whole wire for the layout Woohoo! When considering route indication, this gives you the option of connecting the LEDs to the point switch.

 

The negatives with Tortoise motors are their cost & that they need over 3" clearance below the baseboard (unless fitted to a high level line).

 

An alternative would be to use the point accessory switches to change signals on the layout. I don't think this is as useful for the operator as route indication on the panel, but it does increase viewing realism.

[Ron Ron Ron]

The negatives with Tortoise motors are their cost & that they need over 3" clearance below the baseboard...

The great urban myth that Tortoise motors cost massively more than Peco switch machines.......

 

Peco PL10/e/w solenoid switch machine ??5

Peco PL15 Twin Micro switch ??6

Total cost ??11.00

 

Circuitron Tortoise point motor ??11.50 (each in 6-pack) or ??12.00 (individually)

inc. Twin switches built-in plus superior motor action.

 

(Prices: Hattons and Bromsgrove models)

Prices have gone up, but I paid an average of ??10 for my Tortoises. The cheapest were ??8.50, bought 2 years ago.

IMHO a price difference of a couple of ??????'s is well worth it for the better performance and gentler treatment of the turnouts. In any event, we're talking peanuts within the total cost of a layout.

 

Wiring to panel LED's is a doddle with these and gives an indication that the turnout has operated.

LED's wired from the switch only tell you that you threw the switch; it doesn't indicate that the turnout has moved or failed to move when selected.

 

.

[Pete the Elaner]

Sounds pricey for the Peco stuff. If you only need 1 switch, you don't have to pay for the extra just to have it sitting there doing nothing.

 

& there are always those who wish to cut corners...usually the same ones who look stressed out with their layouts at an expo

 

It also depends how many points you have. I will have only 4 on my next layout, so cost & wiring is minimal. If I were to have 10 (which is not unreasonable), then this will escalate & I would need 20 connections back to the panel just for the LEDs, plus the point wiring, plus any sections (not many because I use DCC).

 

Another consideration is reliability; I had a Peco switch fail on me at an expo so relied on the point blade for electrical continuity.

 

Anyway, we are drifting offtopic. Tortoise point motors make LED route indicators much easier to install. No doubt about that. You can just pull the DC power supply from what you already need for the motors themselves.

[blue star control]

I know Heathcote Electronics do PCB that does this exact job

Point Board Indicator thats only £15.60 - does direction for 4 points and doesn't need any hacking of your current wiring to sort it out from what I can gather.

 

I have seen on exhibition layouts were the operators use a slide switch for the close operation, thus telling the main board whats going on further up the line.

 

Or you can go really wacky and do somthing similar to a 90's style signal control centre and have large lit switches everywere.

 

It all depends on what you desire your layout to do.

[Donw]

For a small exhibition layout. I used Tortoise motors. I made a point operation unit in a small hand sized box. Fed one lead in 16v ac . Two diodes gave =ve and -ve half cycles. Each point had a small changeover switch to select either. A bi-polar LED connected to each switch the other ends lead back through the cable to the point motors and from them to the return of the 16v ac. I taped the box to the handheld controller -full walkabout control minimal wiring and point indication.

For handmade points Tortoises have the advantage of positive pressure maintaining blade contact. They also self adjust for temperature changes.

Donw

[Pete the Elaner]

I got complicated..

 

I'm using the 2nd switch from a tortoise to feed back route info to the panel (the easy bit).

I switch my points with rotary switches. The route indication is slightly delayed, but I know it is telling me the point has thrown.

Where I have 1 point leading to the next, I am using 4 diodes to control the LEDs so the route info feeds back to the panel correctly to show a complete route.

Sound complicated? Possibly. I've not finished it yet. I hope to have it working tonight though

If.... I mean when I get it working, it should be good.

 

Edit: Works a treat!B)

[Crosland]

Both of those methods require wiring back from the point to the control panel, which sounds like a lot of work to me.

Tortoise point motors work differently. Wiring is reduced (you just change the polarity of the constant DC supply) so you save on 1 whole wire for the layout Woohoo! When considering route indication, this gives you the option of connecting the LEDs to the point switch.

It depends whether you want to know what you think you've told the point to do (led connected to the panel switch) or what it has actually done (LEDs monitoring the actual frog polarity).

 

There's no need for so many diodes with DCC.

 

Andrew Crosland

[Pete the Elaner]

I like DCC for train control & use it for that because it makes train control more realistic. The opposite is true for point switching & route indication....unless I want to decode it at the control panel end.... but I have no desire to learn how to do that.

I like wiring so don't have a problem with a little extra work in that area.

 

I've got a vid of the panel in action. I'll attach it when I get around to grabbing it off the phone, but it's in Real player