I am setting up my 8yr. old grandson a small Ho layout and he wants a turntable. Will this work?
Thank you for any info you can give me!
The answer to your question is yes I'm sure you could be able to make it work. Do you mean the actual operation of the turntable it self by means of a stationary decoder, I know it can and has been done for a Walthers Turntable so I can only surmise that one would be able to make it work. If memory serves me correctly you have to flip a switch on the Atlas to reverse the polarity or direction once it hits the half way point? Where that is done automatically by the Walthers units. Which is making me think you would most likely need to incorporate an auto reversing unit if you wanted it to be fully automated. The actual turning of the table it self should be no big deal. I'm getting a gut feeling that it may be more effort then it's worth if your looking to go completely controlled from the throttle.
For the rail feed on the turntable, Atlas does use a split ring, which will reverse the track polarity at a given point in the table roatation. If you note, the track positions on the turntable edge have either an "A" or "B" on the bottom of the opening. This denotes where the polarity will reverse. The only thing you need a reversing switch for on the turntable is the motor drive to turn the table either clockwise or counterclockwise. The main drawback of running the motor on DCC is the current required by the motor will put a load on the DCC power supply. Most people running DC use a separate power supply.
Yes, the Atlas is fully compatable with DCC. No special wiring required, as long as you follow the A/B track rules.
At his age, he might actually prefer the handwheel to operate the turntable. You can add the motor on later. I run mine off an old DC power pack. That's a good way to go, since you can vary the speed of the turntable with the speed control of the power pack. The motor is pretty much the same thing as a locomotive motor, though, so using a decoder to drive it should not be a problem.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks to all who took the time to help me
And thank you for introducing this young man to the hobby.
Just to amplify an earlier comment, at "full power" the powered Atlas TT goes very fast. It looks better if you use a variable voltage source so you can just run it on a couple of volts so it turns slowly.
Depending on the current draw, you could hook a motor decoder to it and set the top voltage (CV5) to something like 25% of full power. Or use a speed table for the same effect.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I havw 3 grand sons 10 8 2 yearsold they all like trains!!!!
Like anothr reply I use DCC on the tracks and an old MRC power pack to control the motor and speed of the unit. Also if you use power switches, you can use the power supply to operate the switch machines.
As a general rule the DCC power supply should only be used for one purpose, to power trains, Everything else should come from a different source or multiple sources. I us an old DC power supply to power the drive mechanism on my Walthers T/T and the track power is DCC, all lights turnouts etc. use separate power sources, some even the old cheap wall warts.
Allegheny2-6-6-6 As a general rule the DCC power supply should only be used for one purpose, to power trains,
In general, I agree with that. Certainly, you don't want to be pulling power off your DCC system to run structure lighting. But, a turntable is a different beast. For one thing, it's really just another motor, and one which will run infrequently on most layouts. When the turntable is running, the engine that's sitting on it isn't, so you're replacing one motor with another. And, it gives you the freedom to run your turntable from your throttle rather than a fixed control panel.