TURNTABLE - completing my thread - control panel

[Anonymous]

Completing the Turntable


After installing the turntable motor (see previous topic on this forum), I set to work on the radial siding track around the turntable. In an earlier thread, I discussed how I used a laser level to help align the tracks around the turntable. The following photo shows the 21 tracks that I installed.






Note in the corner I now have a place for Lionel's Locomotive Backshop (that up until now has been in its box. I guess for the last 5 years!) Over on the left is the control tower from the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry old train Layout that I obtained on eBay a few years ago.

TRACK CONTROL

Because I will be using DCS as well as TMCC I needed to wire each of the tracks with both a ground and live wire to be able to control each separately and deliver power to only one of the lines at a time. If I had 21 engines one per siding and activated DCS all engines would turn on DCS control mode simultaneously. The drain on my power would be significant so instead I opted to install a 24 position 2-pole rotary switch 9 amp capacity (I have two sources for the rotary switch Diamond Scale and Mouser Electronics (D9 Series from Electroswitch)), the cost was approximately $50.00.(whew! ). I next connected all lines to the switch directly (positive and negative to each of the poles)so that only one would be powered at a time. Of course the turntable track would always be powered, as would the three incoming lines.

The following is picture of the web of wires to the rotary switch (note also the simple wood brackets on each side that will support my control panel). Recall that DCS doesn’t like too many power blocks before the TIU. To avoid that issue as stated, I wired the rotary switch directly to each siding.


(PHOTO) of switch





ROTATION
The next item was a control for the turntable rotation. Although I like on/on rocker switches; I find that they are difficult to mount in a plexiglas panel because of the difficult cutout required of a rectangular shape opening. Instead I decided to use an on-off-on bat-handle toggle switch that requires a circular hole. I connected the toggle switch to the DIRECTION slide switch connections on the HO DC transformer I am using to power the turntable motor. Of course, I first unsoldered the slide switch and re-soldered wires from its location on the circuit board to my toggle switch. The toggle now acts in place of the slide switch with an off position that was not present before.

By flipping the toggle up the turntable moves CW (clockwise)and by flipping it down it makes . This and the speed control on the HO transformer that I left alone. I mounted the transformer upsidedown near the turntable control panel so I could adjust it. the adjustments were set to give a slow tuntable movement with a slight momentum to the spin. This control makes it easier to align the turntable with the siding.

After my last post, there were several threads from members asking about some sort of auto-positioning or indexing system. Really the turntable motor moves so slowly that it was not necessary. However, I devised a plan to use magnetic reed switches to determine location and stop the movement of the turntable. That will have to be saved for another thread.

POWERING incoming lines.

Because my turntable can be “fed” from either the outer and inner lines of my layout, I needed a simple ON-OFF-ON switch, like the toggle, to change the power to either line one or two per my DCS TIU.

CONTROL PANEL
At present I have three (3) switches to control various functions of my turntable. So in order to combine them I created the following simple control panel. The basic idea was from Diamond Scale Turntable control panel. Theirs was not quite right for my application so I modified the idea in the design of mine. The photo shows Diamond Scales at the top and two variations of mine below. This was created in Corel Draw program. A very easy to use graphics program.; see photo.




(PHOTO) of panels

The control panel depicted was the first draft so to speak for the final control panel. This panel is a sandwich consisting of: a Plexiglas top; a paper printed panel ; and a bottom piece of ordinary Formica.See photo.


(PHOTO) of separated pieces


As stated, the panel image was created by using CorelDraw; the final image was printed on an HP officejet v40 color inkjet printer on Kodak Premium Picture Paper (high gloss). The high gloss photo paper makes the color and black color reflective and metallic in appearance. I used a “stencil version of the panel” as a template to drill the holes in the Plex and the Formica. The stencil consists of all the located holes with two crosshairs. The drilled plex was used as a template to cut the paper holes. Use a really sharp xacto blade to do this so you wont rip the paper.




(You’ll note that I added two holes for LEDs one green and one red; as I stated, I intend on adding an indexer at some point in the future. So these LEDs will be used to identify when the tracks are lined-up.

To attach the panel to the side of the layout I added two wood braces as shown above. I next mounted the panel to the support brackets.




finished piece



Alan

[Anonymous]

WOW! Alan! With spreads like this, who needs to buy the magazine!!!?? Just kidding Neil!!

[Anonymous]

control panel

note the 23 track positions for the sidings;



click on image to enlarge


Alan

[daan]

It's a splendid turntable Alan, also the control panel looks really proffesional. There should be an article about it in CTT !!! (HINT HINT)
Really impressive.

[FJ and G]

Very very nice and well done. A bit surprised that a rotary switch would cost $40.

The indexing stops sound interesting. I was thinking of doing something like the Wheel of Fortune, using click stops to lock it in place and programming in for the number of clicks to each track. But your method sound much better.

Dave

[Anonymous]

Dave

the $40 figure is the cheapest I found using two souces as stated in the thread above; Each was within $0.50 of the other.

As to operation, because DCS starts up in conventional mode when DCS is on and power is instantaneously supplied to a siding via a switch (due to the power reaching the engine BEFORE the DCS signal) and not starting in command mode that changes the way you address the siding.

the op will be:

1) decide which turntable siding to energize
2) set the rotary to that siding
3) decide which line A or B that will be used to either enter or exit the turntable area
4) set the A/B switch to set the line
5) now energize the power that will run thru the TIU to the siding and line in (or out)

the engine on the siding will come up in DCS command mode;

In the alternative I could just rotate the rotary but at each siding the engine will come up in conventional mode as I monetarily power the siding thru the rotary switch

MTH should have had a soft start mode that always sets the engine to start-up in DCS mode, but that is a short-coming of the MTH system in this application. MTH never envisioned sidings operating on/off at will while DCS is on.

There is a long thread on this topic in another other forum- whose name I will not mention.


Alan

[FJ and G]

Yes, it is understandable that MTH would not have foreseen this. Your wide selection of routes is really incredible; a dream for those with more limited space.

Too bad you can't patent your product and make some money to buy more train stuff. :-)

dav

[spankybird]

Alan, you did a great job. And the pics look great.

tom

[Anonymous]

Nice turn table Alan I have to agree with Daan. The work looks professional, right down to the plate cover and the black screws. That could really go into a magazine.

Angelo