I just received my 1st 2 Tortoise machines and a NCE Switch It. I have a couple of questions, first, I see 2 wiring diagrams. Does that mean I hook the Switch It up to the track and to the Tortoise and then I hook the Tortoise to the track also? If so I guess I need to run a wire from the frog to the Tortoise through a car tail light bulb. Also can I use the Switch It without programing and just use the factory defaults, which I guess would be # 1 and # 2? Sorry for the dumb questions but I no longer have a LHS and I don't know any one with knowledge of Switch It's and Tortoise machines. Thanks.
Two leads go from the track power to the Switch It, and then two leads go from the Switch It to the Tortoise. The leads from the Switch It get connected to terminals 1 and 8 on the Tortoise.
If you want to power the frog, the you need to additional leads from track power to the appropriate terminals on the Tortoise as shown on the wiring diagram, and then one lead from the Tortoise to the turnout frog. If you have one of those turnouts where the frog is powered through the internal turnout wiring, you may not need the extra frog wiring from the Tortoise unless you have a problem further down the road.
So far as the light bulb idea goes, that may have been a good idea in its day, but I personally don't think it's a good idea now. If you are concerned about a short occuring, you need to realize that all that bulb does is limit the current. Depending upon the bulb combination you use, you could have a current anywhere from 2 amps up.
What I did was install a second track power bus around the railroad. The first bus is connected directly to the output of the command station booster, and then to a breaker, and then to the track. If there is a train short, the breaker trips. The second bus taps off ahead of the breaker and goes to all the Switch It locations. That way, if you have a short because someone drives the train into the turnout the wrong way, you will not have lost your turnout power even though the breaker has tripped. This allows you to correct the turnout position and get yourself out of the problem.
And you should change the turnout addresses from the default to something different unless you expect never to have more than two turnouts.
My pennies worth!
[Edit: oh, I should mention that even though I use the separate bus to power the Tortoise, I use the original bus for powering the frog]