I would like to wire a 5mm Red/Green Led between my dpdt switch and my tortoise machine to indicate switch position.
How would I wire that in and do I need a resistor on the LED. I belive it draws 1 to 2 volts and the power supply for the switches is a 12 volt supply, If so, what resistor would I get and are there any suggestions on a source.
Thank you in advabce,,,,Jeff Z in CT
Go look at the below link. The resistance of the Tortoise is about 600 ohms and Tony's says you will not need to add a resistor.
http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/tortoise/index.htm
Store the link in your Favorites folder for reference and you might be able to provide the link to someone in the future. It is nice to give back to the forum.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Thanks !!! I know I saw it somewhere, but when it comes time to use it you never remember where you saw it !
Rick I'm sort of in the same boat on wiring but my question is pertaining to the control panel itself. I wiring DC ( Can't afford DCC yet) and would like to have indicator lights on the control panel to indicate which way the turnout position is in when thrown. I'm using the Atlas #65 undertable mount switch throws and toggles on the control panel.
Can you supply me with a simple schematic of wiring the toggle with indicator lights on the panel?
Smitty
If you are using toggles with Atlas machines then they must be momentary toggles, so there are no simple ways to do this. There ARE such animals as switches that have both momentary and fixed contacts in the same switch, but to go that route will cost as much or more as just changing to Tortoise machines. You need either add an Atlas relay to provide contacts that move with the switch machine, or use a circuit like was shown in a recent thread in this section, which uses electronics to provide the steady state pwoer for the LEDs and respond to the pulse that gets sent to the switch machine. Or you can combine a standard toggle switch and a pushbutton. Using a DPDT toggle, one side cna conenct LEDs to a power supply for indicators, the other side gets wired the same way your SPDT momentray toggles are wired, except with a pushbutton in the power input lead. Change toggle, push button to operate the switch motor - although in such a case the LEDs would change even if you forgot to push the button, giving a false indication.
You can quickly see why Tortoises are worth it. And available online for far less than the $18.95 MSRP. If you have to add $10 parts to the Atlas switch motors to get indicators and frog power, how much different is that REALLY than getting the non-powered turnouts and using a $13.50 Tortoise?
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Jeff,
I have 32 tortoises wired with 2 lead red green LED's on my layout. I have found that they seem to work better (and last longer) with a little less voltage. I'm driving all of my tortoises with a PC power supply that is putting out 11 volts, my 32 and LED's are drawing less then .5 amps. Many of the wall warts put out a lot more then the label voltages under minimal load, I had a 10 volt that was putting out 14 volts under minimal load.