I recently purchased an estate sale that included some peco turnouts with, what I believe, are twin coil motors. The motors have three wires comming from them but I have no idea how these are to be powered. There were no instructions with them. Can I use an old DC power pack , AC side connected through an Atlas switch or some other type switch and how do I do the wireing. I know nothing about electronics so really need help on this one. Thanks George.
If they look like these they should have 4 terminals. Two on each side. I always used the AC accessory terminals on my power pack. They are wired to your controls the same way that Atlas twin coil switch machines are connected.
Each coil has two terminals. Pick one terminal on each and wire them together. These will be the common terminal. The other terminal on each coil gets connected to your pushbuttons or preferably a Capacitor discharge unit.
Martin Myers
It kinda depends on what you call "one side". The simplist way I describe it, is to wire the two terminals facing you together and that becomes the common and goes to one terminal on the power pack, the other two terminals (facing away from you), each go to a button terminal, the other power pack terminal connects to the 2nd terminal of each button. You can use any momentary on button or toggle, (it only makes contact as long as you hold down the button).
I would also recomend a Capacitor Discharge Unit. The pecos draw a good amount of amperage when activated and can cause arcing at the switch, this will eventually lead to the switch getting stuck and in turn will burn out the coils. A capcitor is kind of like a battery, in that it is charged up and discharged, but does it very quickly. When you plug the CDU in, it charges up and when you push the switch button it discharges and sends a pulse to the coil, throwing the turnout. The CDU cannot recharge until you release the switch button, so even if the button gets stuck, once the pulse is sent, the capcitor is empty and can't send any more power to the turnout, thus avoiding a burnout. Once you release the button, the CDU will recharge (in about a second) and you can then throw another switch.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
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Here's the wiring diagram supplied with the Peco:
A good tutorial to get you started is from the UK, here:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/draconus/photo.htm#Wiring%20a%20PECO%20PL10%20point%20motor
I, too, knew nothing about electronics/electrics when I wired my Peco and can say with confidence that you'll be OK once you study the diagram and review the tutorial carefully.
Basically what you're doing is running a common wire that provides power to both coils all the time directly from the Capacitor Discharge Unit--those are on the right side of the Peco in the diagram (alternatively, they can be on the left as well; it doesn't matter). Then you'll run a second wire to each coil individually through the SPDT momentary contact switch. When you flip that switch a coil gets power momentarily through both wires and pulls the points towards it. Flip the switch back, and the process repeats with the second coil.
If you haven't soldered before, I'd suggest you practice a bit before wiring the Peco. It's not difficult, but it does require a light touch because of the small wires (22 AWG) and close tolerances involved.
Rick Krall