I'd really appreciate anyone looking over my wiring plans and letting me know if they see a problem. I'm using 2 wire bicolor LED's and Tortoise switch machines. The connector at the bottom is a quick disconnect to the switch machines. I know I may have to switch some wires due to direction of switch machines and LED's colors but I'm hoping not to burn anything up. I'll be using a 9VDC 500ma power supply for the whole thing. Thanks.
You don't need the potentiometer, and in fact with 2 sets of LEDs you might want a full 12V - with 2 LEDs in each circuit you will lose over 4 volts. 9V or so is a good compromise on the Tortoise, much less and they move too slowly and with little power, get close to the 12V rating and they are noisier. 12V in plus 2 sets of LEDs will put about 8V to the 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.
LIONS do not like the DPDT switches in his panel.
Here is his power supply (Two versions, first what I built, and second what could be built more simply)
The third print is of my control panel. The SPST switch selects either the +12vdc circuit or the -12vdc circuit. That wire, which call the "stinger" provides power to all panel lights, signals and Tortoise machines. Signals and machine are wired in parallel, so each gets the benefit of the full 12 volts.
The fourth print is of a typical turnout installation.
The LION runs a common ground wire around the entire layout, and this must be grounded to earth, not left floating, other wise stray voltages on this wire would cause undesired results. Thus each turnout receives only ONE wire from the control panel. In addition to the Tortoise machines, I can also power auxiliary relays for power routing, and more complex signal logic on location.
Each conductor in my control harness is valuable, and I try to use as few of them as possible. The LION did not bother with connectors, as a matter of fact I cut up parallel printer cables so that I can salvage those nice conductors for outer uses. Him used 25 pair Cat-3 cables around the entire layout for control distribution. Being cheap him did not buy proper punch-down blocks, but just made his own out of a board and some nails.
Note too, that frequently a single control will operate more than one Tortoise machine. The wires on the board shown above repeat about every 15 to 20 feet, and I may connect to whatever board is the closest. Keep a book of what wire numbers are assigned to what devices. You cannot reuse wire numbers in different locations, thus not every nail will be used at every panel. It is the same idea as a telephone cable installation, except of course there are no pairs since ground is the common return.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
I have about 20 Tortoises wired to DPDT switches on each of four control panels. I have a bi-polar LED wired to each DPDT and signal with two LEDs (searchlights and dwarfs) on the layout wired to each Tortoise.
All of these components are powered by a separate MRC Railpower 1370 power pack for each control panel.
That all works fine for me.
Rich
Alton Junction
I hope the panel you are building is not one large centralized control panel. I saw your layout plan in another post, and the better way would be to have a small panel at each town or major switching location. This would allow you to walk with your train and switch the industries while standing near them. Something like this:
Although these two panels are close together, the right one is for the upper level. That way two operators can work close to the same area but have their own panel for their own switching area.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
First thanks to everyone for the welcome and the advice. I think I will move up to the 12VDC supply to avoid problems. I used the DPDT switches because about 5 years ago I got about 150 of them for free, best price I could find. I will be splitting up the panels around the layout just to keep things simple. My first thoughts were to do all DCC for switch control but I still like the hands on feel for some things. Thanks again.