how to wire a panel board with bi color LED switches

[Georgep]

I would like to replace my panel board SPDT toggle switches with bi color LED switches. This is so I can know which way the switch is set by seeing the color it is. Green for closed and red for thrown. My current toggle switches have 3 contacts and I am using both Atlas solenoid type and also tortoise type switch machines. I think the Tortoise machine only requires 2 wires to the panel board. I am most interested in a point to point diagram to show how the wires are routed. Turnout motor, to panel board layout, to Digitrax DS64. I hope someone can help me with this.

Thanks 

[gmpullman]

A two-lead, bi-color LED can simply be wired in series on either leg of one wire going to the Tortoise. Reverse it if the color is not agreeing with the point direction.

 With twin-coils you have the choice of adding an Atlas 200 Snap Relay that will give you two SPDT switch contacts to drive either a separate red and green LED or you can drive a three lead, bi-color LED.

Tortoise instructions here:

http://www.circuitron.com/index_files/INS/800-6000ins.pdf

Page 2 diagram 4. Either a single bi-color LED can be used or one bi-color which is the same thing in one capsule.

Your twin-coil Atlas machines still require intermittent current to "snap" them over. The snap relay will mimic the turnout switch machine but give you the electrical contacts to power a signal or panel LED. The LEDs will require a separate DC supply, probably the same you are using for the Tortoise, plus a 1kΩ resistor.

If you Google Atlas 200 signal wiring you will get some diagrams. The Snap Relay comes with an instruction sheet showing how to wire turnout indicators/signals.

The last page here has a diagram to get you started:

https://www.moreleds.com/nds2.pdf

 

Good Luck, Ed

[Onewolf]

I have two lead bicolor (red/green) LEDs wired inline between my NCE Switch-It and Tortoises.  They work fine except they are more orangish/greenish yellow than red/green.

[gmpullman]

Onewolf

They work fine except they are more orangish/greenish yellow than red/green.

LED-Switch has a nice 3mm bi-color red/pure green water-clear LED:

http://www.led-switch.com/3mm%20LED.htm#3mm%20Bi-Color%20Color%20LED%20Mark

Scroll down.

 

I like to use red/yellows on secondary trackage and red/green on the main. The green is a nice, signal green color.

Good Luck, Ed

[Georgep]

Hi Ed,

I am not good with electrical or wiring diagrams. I need pictures and/or an explanation on how to run the wires so I can do it right. I looked at the tortoise diagram you gave referenct to and it does help some but not much. The diagram shows one wire on one power contact of the Tortoise with red and green in parallel?, but there are two wires in the LED. I don't see how to do that. Do both leads just get soldered to the same wire? Details?

I have all my switches already wired to a panel board with SPDT toggles. I want to change them to bi color LED push buttons. I want to know exactly what I have to physically do to change out the toggle switches that I have, with "one" each turnout "bi color LED pushbutton" for each switch board toggle so that I can see what position the turnouts are according to the color of the LED on the panel board. I would also like to know what "company" to get the push buttons from and which are best to use in this situation. I want to push the push button and get green for closed, and push again and get a red for thrown. Or any better ideas along the same line. Pics or videos are good also. Would the 3 contact bi color LED just attach to the three contacts going to the panel board? Again, details.

Thanks,

George

[BigDaddy]

I feel your pain George.   Like you, I can only identify some of the hierogliphics on a electrical diagram. 

Berrett Hill has an elegant and pricey solution, although I don't know what you would need to do to get it to work with the Atlas machines.   For Tortoises, it is just about all plug and play.  Skip the first 2 minutes of the video

[HOmainline]

Georgep

I would like to replace my panel board SPDT toggle switches with bi color LED switches. This is so I can know which way the switch is set by seeing the color it is. Green for closed and red for thrown. My current toggle switches have 3 contacts and I am using both Atlas solenoid type and also tortoise type switch machines. I think the Tortoise machine only requires 2 wires to the panel board. I am most interested in a point to point diagram to show how the wires are routed. Turnout motor, to panel board layout, to Digitrax DS64. I hope someone can help me with this.

Thanks 

 

 

George,

 

Did you mean to write "add" LEDs to your panel board (and, thus, wire them to the toggle switches and Tortoises) instead of replace the toggle switches with LEDs?  If not, then I'm not familiar with the "LED switches" you describe.

 

Anyway, if that's the case you want Circuiton's Application Note AN-6000-7, which is available and printable off its website.  The diagram and its wiring schematic are mostly intuitive, though admittedly, in one place could have been presented more clearly.  Once you wire up one or two, you should have the hang of it.

[hon30critter]

Here is the Circuitron diagram that Kerry is referring to:

http://circuitron.com/index_files/AN/AN-6000-07.pdf

There are other options. For example, you can have two bi-colour LEDs per turnout, one on each route, and it is easy to wire them so that one shows green and the other shows red depending on which way the turnout is thrown. We are doing that on our club's new layout. It is a bit of overkill but we want to make it very clear whether or not the switch is thrown against you. It involves the use of two power supplies for the tortoises but the wiring is actally pretty simple. If you are interested let me know and I will draw up a diagram.

Dave

[HOmainline]

hon30critter

Here is the Circuitron diagram that Kerry is referring to:

http://circuitron.com/index_files/AN/AN-6000-07.pdf

Dave

 

 

Thanks for posting that diagram, Dave!  Easy-peasy.  Once you've figured it out once, that is. 

[Tophias]

BigDaddy

I feel your pain George.   Like you, I can only identify some of the hierogliphics on a electrical diagram. 

Berrett Hill has an elegant and pricey solution, although I don't know what you would need to do to get it to work with the Atlas machines.   For Tortoises, it is just about all plug and play.  Skip the first 2 minutes of the video

 

 

Kevin (Berrett Hill) has a board that works nicely with twin coil machines.  I’m presently developing a project to convert my push buttons for turnouts, and toggle switches for block control,  panel to Touch Toggles for panel LED indication of turnout position And block power status. Additionally, he will soon introduce a LED driver that is plug and play with the touch toggles system that will send a signal to signal masts.  In my case I will use this for operator (engineer) on-layout turnout indication.I met Kevin at the Springfield show and was very impressed

[Georgep]

No that is not what I wanted. Sorry if I am not clear.

I have:

Tortoise switch machines with remote toggle switches and using DS64 for loconet detection and messages. I flip a switch on the panel board and the switch changes. But it is too far away to see if it is changed or not. Sometimes I have one or more switches flipped the wrong way, but I cannot see that from the other side of the layout.

What I want:

I want the remove the remote toggle switches and change them to become push buttons with bi color LED's built in. When pushed once, the push button LED will change to red and the turnout will change to thrown, and push the button again and it will show green and the turnout will change to closed.

I am not sure I can do this with Atlas switches which I have several of in addition to the Tortoise motors. But if I can, I would really like to "see" which way the turnouts are turned, by the LED's lighting when I push a button. 

I hope this is a little more clear than my last email. Sorry.

George

[BigDaddy]

I looked and could not find a similar switch to the Berrett Hill.  Maybe it's their own invention, maybe not, but for sure, it's not readily available at Digikey or Ebay.

The board Tophias referred too for the atlas machines is comparable to the "Sanpper" but you need a power supply.  http://www.berretthillshop.com/store/products/twin-coil-control-base/

I groused about the price in my earlier post, but it really is a slick system.  Signal control would be a big plus.

[Georgep]

Hi Dave,

Is there such a thing as a two LED pushbutton contained in one push button where one color is red and the other is green? One push of the button would change the turnout direction and the turnout direction, and the second push of the button would change the turnout to the other direction and the LED would change to the other color. If there such a pushbutton, where can I get some to replace my toggle switches that I already have? If there is a two color LED (red/green) push button, can I use the diagram you gave me to wire it up to replace the toggles that would be perfect? Or is there additional wiring I would need? I am not electrically inclined so I would need details on how to do it right.

Thanks,

George

[rrinker]

 Look at the wiring for the Candian Canyons project layout in MR (the couple of videos by Ben Lake on MRVP are more detailed than what appears in the April MR), they did much the same. Tortoise switch motors, controlled with DS64's and pushbuttons. With LEDs - because in the staging area of the layotu you can't see which wat the turnout is lined. They even mention the part number of the buttons they used, which have LEDs in them. I am using the same buttons in my circuit. Note that the LED and the button contacts are completely independent - there are two wires which are the button contacts, and 2 wires which are the LED connections.

 You can;t really ue pushbuttons with a TOrtoise directly, without some sort of control circuit, but the pushbuttons can activate a DS64 - and the pushbutton inputs do update Loconet with the switch position so a dispacher panel in somethng like JMRI will show the change even if the button is used instead of sending a DCC command to the DS64.

 Those same pushbuttons, and at least one other one I researched, are ALSO available with bicolor LEDs - so if you set the button up as a toggle, insteadof 2 buttons for every turnout, the LED in the button can change from red to green depending on the position. A pair of these pushbuttons, wired so that one button sets the turnout normal and the other reverse, could also use the bicolor LED version so that the one you pressed goes green and the other one goes red.

                                  --Randy