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Turnout/Switch machine DC power supply
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[quote] <p>As Alan pointed out, a C-D supply for each turnout is just not practical. Don't go there. Yes, pushbuttons can weld together under high current--if you use the <strong>cheap</strong> ones. As someone else said, stay away from the R.S. cheapie micro switches. Use switches rated at 2 or 3 amps. The chances of one of them welding together is extremely small. The power to throw the turnouts comes from the capacitor, <strong>not</strong> from the transformer. The transformer is there to re-charge the capacitor between uses. A 2 amp transformer is <strong>plenty</strong>. As someone suggested, start with around 2,000 mfd and if that doesn't provide enough of a jolt, add another 1,000 mfd and even another 1,000 until your 4 turnouts snap nicely. Two words of warning. <font size="3"><strong>1) The jolt from 4 or 5,000 mfd may be more than one single turnout coil can handle.</strong></font> 2) <font color="#ff0000"><strong>Make very sure that you connect positive to positive and negative to negative when joining capacitors together. </strong></font><font color="#333333">Otherwise you could have a very nasty, messy and painful explosion.</font></p><p>[/quote]</p><p>I had not thought of point 1 above (edited to enlarged and bold). I built a CD unit to throw two Atlas snap switches at a time (several crossovers in my layout); it does work fine with just one switch. I used parts-on-hand and just added caps until I got reliable operation. I think that I ended up with about 3000 mfd; however the CD system is now mounted under my bench and I can not read the cap values for verification.</p><p>Do you really need to throw 4 switches at one time? Complicated, diode matrix, switching systems do not work well with snap switches; but work great with stall motor machines like the tortoise.</p><p> </p><p> </p>
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