Some of you chaps have been using Tam Valley products with servos and I have been intrigued by this and would like to use such devices for some hidden staging that I am adding to the layout.
A quick summary. My layout uses all Peco Code 100 insulfrog turnouts. All turnouts are manually thrown, so I have no experience with stationary decoders.
My layout has a Digitrax DCS50 as the command station, with DT402 throttles and a PC running JMRI Decoder Pro.
Here is a very poor schematic of the staging layout.
The reversing Y is controlled by an AR1 and works perfectly with manual throw of the switches.
What I would like is both fascia and DCC control of the turnouts thrown by the servos. I would also like the capability of route control into the various stub end staging tracks.
I am not sure if this is best accomplished by Quads and Singlets which have the decoder built in, or if it is better to use the Octopus and then some other decoder?
I would really appreciate some thoughts from others with more experience in this area.
Thanks
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
The Quads are a better deal over the Singlets, especially if you have allt he turnouts grouped for a yard like that. I was goign to use Quads but no place do I actually have 4 turnouts close to each other so I went with the Singlets. Plus I like the bicolor LEDs on the Singlet, I set mine to show green on the selected route and red on the blocked route. I was going to get fancy and make the red/green only for turnouts off the main, and yard and industrial sidings be yellow/off but I figured that would be too confusing. Plus when I buy Singlets I get the kids - all you have to do is solder on the 2 LEDs and 2 pushbuttons, and it's like $2 cheaper than the assembled ones.
If you weren't planning on DCC control, the Octopus is the best deal in terms of cost per turnout. Adding in a stationary decoder with 8 suitable outputs to control it though would probably turn otu more expensive than a pair of Quads.
One other difference between the Singlet and the Quad, the SInglet has an automatic endpoint finder feature for the servo, the Quad doesn't. It's kin dof neat but not required, in fact it can take quite a while to find both stopping points witht he automatic feature, but it does a good job of making sure the servo cna fully travel to either side and not stall. Manual tunning basically requires pressing the buttons until the desired position is reached - you can do gross adjustments using CV values to set the position and then fine tune it witht he buttons.
Relays for the Quad require a card plugged in to teh Quad witht he relay outputs, plus the relays. The relays just plug right in to the Singlet. Should you need frog power for something. I wired all my Atlas turnouts for frog power and I have relays for most of them, but I never installed them, nothing stalls over the dead frog, not even the 44 tonner. I'll probably hook them up in the yard and cement plant, just in case, where the slowest running will take place.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks Randy, I appreciate your response. I was a little uncertain about all this and you have helped clarify my thinking.