I can live with the changing of the controls since I have a Red/Green LED at each turnout for position indication. I guess I wasn't sure the decoder would work with the toggle switch and its changing polarity when thrown to the other direction. As long as I don't have to worry about any damage to the decoder or Tortise I can try it and see what happens.
Thanks,
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Yes you can. The only problem with doing that is your DCC system will no longer know which way the switches are thrown or which way to throw them for a particular result. For example, if you want to throw a switch from the throttle, which direction is "closed" and which direction is "thrown" will depend on which way the toggle is set - reversing the direction of the toggle swaps closed and thrown. Also if you use something like JMRI to show switch status it will not know when the toggle is reversed.
These issues may not be a problem for you, but if they are I think a better solution would be to get a Loconet input device(Digitrax's DS64 and Team Digital's SIC24AD are a couple of examples) to give you pushbutton control of the turnouts.
I have a Digitrax DS44 decoder running four Tortise machines, each with a bipolar LED for position indication. My question is; can I run the output wires from the decoder to a toggle (DPDT) and then to the Tortise so I have control at a local panel as well as from the throttle?