Tortoise to DS-54 wiring

[Anonymous]

Hi. I'm a bit unfamiliar with the wiring of the Tortoise switch machine to a Digitrax DS-54. I've checked the manuals online but only show the wiring for a solonoid switch. I want the machine to provide feedback as well. Digitraxs' hookups are a plug in type (similar to phone cables) with 4 wires.
Do I need to wire up the two power wires (#1 & 8) on the machine to the cable or is it necessary to use two of the auxiliary contacts as well . I haven't purchased the DS-54 yet, I'm just prewiring the machines for future instalation.
Regards

[rrinker]

It depends on what kind of feedback you want. If you want complete feedback, you need to use both inputs and one complete SPDT switch fromt he Tortoise contacts. The other can be used to power the frog. You can use just one of the DS54 inputs and one side of the Tortoise contacts to provide feedback that reliably indicates one direction, but anything from halfway thrown to all the way to the other side will be considered as thrown. That's probably good enough for model railroads, plus it allow you to use the second input on the DS54 for a local control button.
Figures 8, 9, and 13 in the manual show hookups for Tortoises. If you just want the ability to throw turnouts and have local control buttons, the NCE Switch-It is quite a bit cheaper and works fine with Digitrax.

--Randy