A friend of mine told me about a different method of controlling a set of crossover turnouts using $4.00 switch machines.
I went to the website and configured what I thought was a workable diagram for their system. After waiting a month for a response from them, I went with accessory decoders and Tortoise Machines.
I am still interested in the TAM Valley Depot Radio Control component system and thought there might be someone in this group that could verify the correctness of the wiring diagram. The cost of the servos is very compelling to investigate this system further.
Even enlarged I can;t read the numbers of the pins you connected to, but assuming the servos are connected tot he right connections ont he board, and the fascia controllers are plugged in to the proper terminals ont he boards, that's fine. There's really nothing to it, you just connect power to the input screw terminals, plug the servos in to the servo connections (use Y cables to connect two for a crossover), and plug the fascia controllers in. Everything just plugs in, no soldering needed.
I use the Singlets, because I have no location where there are 4 turnouts together, and while the Quad is cheaper, if you only use 3 of the 4 outputs it's not. Plus at the time, only the Singlet had the bi-color LEDs so I could have the selected route show green and the blocked route showing red. And the Singlet comes as a 'kit' to save a buck or so on each one - all you do is solder in the LEDs and pushbuttons, I can knock one together in a minute.
If DCC control of the turnouts is not needed, the Octopus is even cheaper, since it leaves off the DCC decoder functionality and drives 8 servos.
Early on a had a few questions with the first couple I bought to test out, and Duncan answered my email queries quite promptly.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hi Randy,
See if the diagram is better, now. Maybe that's why I didn't get a response from TAM. It's too late for this project, but I'm still interested in the concept. I used to play around with model plane and proportional radio control. This appears to be what TAM has based their system on. The fact that any servo can be used and servos are cheap.
Jon
Yeah, I get my servos on eBay, there are dozens of sellers. About $13 shipped for 6 of them. Sure they're fron China, but so are all the others. Offset by using made in the USA Tam Valley controllers, and TCS decoders in my locos.
With the price of Tortoises constantly going up, you can't beat the servos. Servo, controller, local buttons, LED indicators, and DCC decoder for less than the price of the Tortoise alone.
Can anyone verify the correctness of the diagram. I have increased the resolution to a level I think is now readable, I hope.
Thanks,
It looks fine. Dedicated booster/power district runnign the Quads, couple of locations with crossovers using two servos in one output - you use a Y cable for that, standard RC servo component, that allows you to plug 2 servos into one socket.
Thanks for confirmation on the main part of the diagram. Will the LEDs indicate correctly?
They're configurable. If they are backwards you just reverse the plug for that controller, but if you get the bi-color ones you can also change which one is what color throught he programming. I arranged mine so that when I get around to puting the stripes indicating the tracks on my fascia, the LEDs are on the diverging side and the button is at the intersection - so some have the LEDs to the right of the button, and some to the left. When programming I set the LEDs so the green one is the selected route and the red one is the blocked route. You can also make them both yellow, or just have the selected one lit and the other dark - pretty much any combination.
Great! Now all need is a project.
Thanks again,