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Newbie Question about wiring Kato Unitrak Turnouts
Newbie Question about wiring Kato Unitrak Turnouts
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Newbie Question about wiring Kato Unitrak Turnouts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Monday, April 5, 2004 9:27 PM
I purchased 8 used "N" scale Kato Unitrack Turnouts. They come with the lead wires and the plug, but no switch or instructions. What voltage do these take, and can I use a Center off SPDT instead of Kato's switches which are $8 each.
Thanks, Dave
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 12:27 PM
Go to the hobby shop. Switches are $6.00 at my not so local LHS. Then there's an adapter you plug em into that goes to your AC terminals on your transformer. It's all plug and play.
m
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mls1621
Member since
December 2003
From: St Louis
516 posts
Posted by
mls1621
on Tuesday, April 6, 2004 3:58 PM
Dave,
The advantage of the Kato switches is that they plug together, and the plugs are the power buss for all of the switches. The adapter, mentioned in the previous post plugs at one end of the chain and the leads that you have plug to the individual switches to control the turnouts.
The few dollars you might save by using SPDT switches will be offset by the amount of time spent wiring each one individually and then mounting them.
You have to weigh the alternatives, but I think you'd be better off going with the Kato units.
Mike St Louis N Scale UP in the 60's Turbines are so cool
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Thursday, April 8, 2004 1:12 PM
Kato switch machines are uniquely designed. If you want to replace their own switches you will need center DPDT not SPDT, with polarity reversed for throwing the switch.
Although the points made in favor of the Kato swiches are accurate as far as they go, I ended up replacing my Kato (HO) switches due to unreliability and premature failures.
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tomytuna
Member since
December 2002
From: US
165 posts
Posted by
tomytuna
on Saturday, April 24, 2004 6:08 AM
Hi rails.....i've just started using Kato and i like their turnouts...but can you tell me what kind of premature failure you had?....Thanks Tom
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Anonymous
Member since
April 2003
305,205 posts
Posted by
Anonymous
on Wednesday, May 5, 2004 9:46 PM
Hi Tom, I've been travelling (its what pays for my trains), sorry for the late response. I had a sort of modular set-up for which a full-blown permanent control panel was not practical. I purchased 8 of the Kato switch controllers. 3 of them failed (i.e. stoped operating) within 100 operations. And believe me, electrics are the strong point of my model railroading. I replaced them with medium-quality DPDT center-off sprung switches that have worked as flawlessly as expected through at this point thousands of operations. I know others who have experienced multiple early failures with the Kato controllers.
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