Bob,
About a year ago, I converted my 1122 switches to fixed voltage. I didn't use Lionel's method of trying to grab the coil wires under the solenoid. I simply Dremeled a window into the bottom of my switches and added the jumper right there. Works great. I also added knife switches to cut the power to my two blocks of switches to eliminate buzzing if trains are parked on them. By the way.....I discovered that this also eliminates the sudden stops that MTH engines do when passing over PW switches. Recently, I replaced my 027 switch controllers with 022 controllers and added a nice toggle setup to allow the lamps to show the proper position.
About a week ago, I decided to try and eliminate the solenoid buzz completely. I found one of your posts on a Forum and got the components and wired it up. It didn't work. No matter what I seem to try, I've had no luck. I thought perhaps the components were bad and I swapped them out. I'm not getting enough power to either light the lamps (they stay VERY dim) and the switches won't switch.My wiring setup for fixed voltage works fine, but as soon as I add the capacitor, resistor and diode.....nothing. Do you have any ideas as to what the problem is and perhaps a solution for it? I've spent many days now on this and I'm stumped.
Thanks,
RogerNY
It will also eliminate any warning that a coil is overheating, when you park a train on the turnout. You need to put a capacitive-discharge circuit between the DC power supply and the turnout. It can be very simple, just an electrolytic capacitor and an incandescent lamp.
Bob Nelson
Nino,
The buzzing of the coils is normal, and happens exactly as you state due to the non-derailing feature of the switches. Powering the switch coils with DC will quiet them down.
Larry
Niño, I believe there is a way to power the switch with DC, or using a bridge rectifier that will cut the noise. I had learned this many years ago and don't recall the specifics, but I think it is a relatively easy fix. Good luck, dennis
TCA#09-63805
I have powered both my 1121 and 1122 switches directly to a ZW transformer. When a car makes a bridge between the switch track with a fibre pin to the corresponding main line track, the switch buzzes. There is 15 volts between these two points and the solenoids "know that" and buzz away.
Since there is no controller connected to the 1122 switches but there is a controller on the 1121 switches and since both kinds of switch act identically, the lamp in the controller cannot be the cause of this buzzing.
Any thoughts about the possibility of silencing/cutting down this buzzing noise?
Nino from San Jose
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