I have been using two color red/green 3mm LED's for my turnout indicators at the turnout. I wire them thru the Tortoise machines and they have been working great until today. I replaced a curved turnout and had to relocate the Tortoise. When I rewired it (permenant wiring this time!), only the green color works. I tried reversing the leads and the power wires but only the green color works. The Tortise is working properlly and reversing polarity. Can the LED be burned out on the red side only? This is a two lead type LED and is wired to the No 1 contact on the LED so I don't use resistors. I have many other turnouts like this so I know it is wired correctly? Any thoughts before I order more LED's?
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
I am no expert on LEDs, but in my experience, either both colors work or neither color works.
I have lots of bi-polar LEDs on my layout and they are wired to Tortoises from DPDT switches on control panels, but I use a two wire setup to the Tortoise from the legs of the LED and I use a resistor on one leg.
Have you tried another LED to rule out the problem with a faulty LED?
Sounds to me like the problem is with the Tortoise or the wiring, not the LED. But, I will be anxious to hear from the experts on this one.
Rich
Alton Junction
A 2-wire 2-color LED has the two diodes back to back, so one can fail while the other words. Perhaps while the Tortoise was out of the circuit, the motor leads contactect one another, powering the LED without the current limiting of the motor.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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Randy,
This is what I was thinking the problem would be, but didn't know if it could burn out one color and not the other. I have other turnouts wired like this but don't want to dismantle them to test one of those LED's so I guess I will buy a couple of new ones and try that. Thanks,
Simplest issue is to test the LED on the work bench. If it works there, redo your wiring. If it does not work there, replace the LED. BE SURE TO USE a 1000Ω resistor to test on the bench.
ROAR
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One color can burn out with the other still working. The LED is built with 2 LEDs in the same case.
It was the LED! I found a spare I didn't realize I had and it works just fine. Thanks for all the input guys.
farrellaa It was the LED! I found a spare I didn't realize I had and it works just fine. Thanks for all the input guys. -Bob
Bob, I referenced an earlier thread from a few months back where you provided a diagram of your wiring set up. Interesting to be able to wire without a resistor.
Our club uses a two lead bi color and 9 vdc. No resistor needed as the Tortoise draws less than 20 ma.
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