turnout position indicator

[JnJ'slittletrain]

I have a bunch of Peco insulfrog turnouts and in the spirit of keeping things cheap, I had the idea (well actually Porsche had the idea so I copied their heater gate control method for turnouts) to go with DIY remote manual throw switches. My manual throw works very well but because of the short throw of the wire pull, its very difficult to see what position the turnout is in, not to mention some of these switches are inside a tunnel. 

So with all that, I want to design a control panel that will have LEDs or a form of light that indicates which track the train will be taking. Our layout is DCC powered via NCE Power Cab. Can someone give me some suggestions that will work for us. 

Also is there an inexpensive block detection device that would tell us what track the train is on when inside the tunnel, as its a double track. Again just looking for something that will turn on a light when the train is on specific track while out of our sight. 

thanks for any advice

[rrinker]

 Simplest thing? Change where the control level pivits, to the part you move moves a greater distance than it pulls/pushes the cable - so you have a positive indication. Depening on how the control handles are made, this could be super easy, and it's free.

 Electrofrogs, you could hook the LEDs up to the track in such a way that the one for the selected route would be on, but not so insulfrogs. You'll have to get a microswitch for each one, so that in one position the lever is depressed and the other is not, giving you contacts to power LEDs.

 There are several detectors like the NCE BD20 and Team Digital DBD22 that can drive LEDs. You need to gape the section of track being detected, and it will only detect locos and lighted cars unless you put resistor wheelsets in your rolling stock, but this is about the cheapest. The DBD22 is under $22 for 2 blocks,a nd the wiring diagram shows exactly how to hook up LEDs that light up when the blocks are occupied.

                      --Randy

 

[BroadwayLion]

LION has no problem seeing position of lever:

You, OTOH, have a problem. You are using manual throws? Are these wayside levers, you can paint one side white, the other side red. If you are running a control wire to the fascia then you need a longer wire, something like a choke cable or a cable from a bicycle brake then you can fashion a leaver that is big enough to see.

As per the LION's GRS model-5 machine, the NORMAL position is the in position, when pulled out the switch points are in the reverse (diverging) position. A protocol likes this helps the tower operator to know how his points are set. Weather you use electric motors or something manual, the normal positions should all look the same.

Think outside of the box and see what you can come up with.

ROAR

[richhotrain]

rrinker

There are several detectors like the NCE BD20 and Team Digital DBD22 that can drive LEDs.

You can pick up an NCE BD20 for $11.99 at MB Klein.  I have several of them on my layout.  They are reliable and easy to wire.

Rich

[hon30critter]

Here is a very simple infrared detector circuit that cost about $4.00 per circuit. I will caution you that I have only built test versions of the circuit but I have built three of them and they all will detect something at about 1 1/2". I don't know where I got the ciruit from so I can't give proper credit to the designer.

Here is the schematic diagram and Digi-Key parts list:

I think you should be able to use whatever LED you want to.

Here are some pictures of the assembled test circuit and the test track. The tubes in the track are heat shrink tubing:

You will need a filtered 12V power supply. The circuits did not work reliably when I tried them on an old train power pack.

The phototransister must be shielded by the heat shrink tubing so that only the very tip of the phototransistor is exposed. By shielding the phototransistor only infrared light reflected back onto it from the cars passing above will be detected.

Please be aware that there are a few limitations to this circuit i.e. there is no delay so that it will switch on and off as each car rolls over it. If you want to use it to control signals or trip a turnout you will have to add a bunch to the circuit. Please don't ask me what or how to do that!

I will finish by saying that I am an electronics dunce! The fact that I got these circuits to work suprised the heck out of me! However, if I can do it anybody can. Just remember the filtered power supply.

Dave

EDIT - The OP asked for turnout position indicators. I didn't pay enough attention to the details in his question so the above circuit may not serve that purpose very well.

 

[cuyama]

Infrared detection will indeed work fine, and avoids changes to rolling stock. Commercial offerings are also available if you don't care to build your own.
Azatrax 
Boulder Creek
LogicRail
 
And a number of others