I have a Walthers 933-3171 90' Turntable Kit and a 933-1050 Motor unit for that kit. I would like to control the turntable using DCC. Has anyone done this? If so, can you point me to some instructions for setting it up?
Thank you for your suggestions.
You would need to know what the motor current draw is. Once you have that figured out, you can pick an appropriate motor only decoder. Then you connect the motor to the decoder the same as if you were wiring a loco. Two leads to the motor, and two power feed leads to the decoder.
what you have is the infamous Walthers 90' Turntable kit. Before you get too far, check to see that the plastic 'pit' is indeed 'round'. Many of them are warped and severe binding is the result. Insert the bridge unit and test it to see if there is a bind, many time it can be fixed with some careful 'forming' of the pit assembly.
The next step is to check to see if the plastic 'bearing' is causing a problem. I replaced mine with a metal one I picked up at ACE Hardware. You have to get the turntable running before even thinking about DCC control.
Next take a multi-meter that can read several DC amps and put it in series with the DC power leads from an old power pack - You should be able to get a reading(I suspect under 1 amp). Next find a motor only or Function decoder with an output greater that you DC amp reading.
Myself, I have no use for a throttle controlled turntable. I do have a larger Walther turntable with 'indexing' and that is nice for roundhouse stalls & the lead tracks. For my 'end of the branch turntable', I just use a DPDT switch and my eyeball to align the track. IIRC, the Walthers 'kit' does not 'auto swap' polarity leads - You may need to buy an 'Auto Reverser' for it.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Jim,
I have the same,motor that he has,on my swing bridge,,but I run the motor,at 6volts DC,with a 6volt,300MA,transformer,along with a incandescent bulb on the control panel,red and green,one light is on,when the bridge is in motion,bridge stops by itself,light stays lit..The bulbs,are rated at 60MA..So i am pretty sure the current draw is,way lower than 1amp.. Never took a reading..
Cheers,
Frank
Thank you and to the others for their suggestions. I am disappointed to learn about the TT kit I have. Perhaps, before I do anything further, I should build it on a separate base and make sure it works properly. If it does not, then I guess is it on to a more expensive but indexed model.
I think a stepper motor and a microcomputer might be a solution, but there is so much information about that on the web, it is hard to sort out what is relevant.
Assuming you get it turning smoothly, is it right near the front, or will it be buried towards the back of the layout? If it's near the front, consider the simple solution - an inexpensive DC power pack to turn it. This is how one of the tables on our club layout works, it's connected to a small handheld walakaround throttle (that's pretty much just embedded int eh benchwork) - I forget the make of it, but any small transistor throttle or even a cheap train set power pack will work fine. Speed is kept low, someone scribed a line on it where you should set it as a max speed, and the reverse switch on it is a center-off type so you can 'jog' it back and forth, pretty much just like a real turntable. Since it's right in front of the operator, it's easy to just manually line up the tracks - just like the real thing. No fancy indexing or stepper motors needed.
All the gadgets are neat, but one of the only ones that seems to be absolutely reliable is the NYRS system, and the electronics alone cost more than the Walthers built-up turntable with indexing. Neat, but any turntable I install, I intend to keep right near the front so I can show it off, and thus the fancy gadgets aren;t needed.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
jpduffy3I think a stepper motor and a microcomputer might be a solution, but there is so much information about that on the web, it is hard to sort out what is relevant.
I can't speak to the quality of the turntable itself. But before you start investing in stepper motors and microcomputers please just connect the motor to a spare decoder and wire it as I suggested above. At that point what you have is the same as a loco without the boiler. You can program the decoder to get the motor moving very slowly and easily eyeball the track alignment. I suggested this to a doubting friend and his turntable works very well, better than his turntable with the fancy Walthers indexing system.
Mike Polsgrove explains one way to accomplish this in his book "DCC Projects and application", p30. While it isn't specifically for the Walther's TT, you can probably adapt the basic idea to your application. you can see it here if this link works...
http://books.google.com/books?id=muvUGCV_3zUC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=polsgrove+turntable+dcc&source=bl&ots=vCVmrX5jyG&sig=FvCr7byJITviE9JTc0fXPP3t6qk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DaqLUYTUE7ep4APW4IDwCQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=polsgrove%20turntable%20dcc&f=false