three point switches

[Clayton]

I am trying to figure out how what three way switch box should I use for the 1261/2 three way switches?  If I decide to use the Tomix switch boxes. I see the 5533 and this is mainly for the double crossover if not using two of the 5531 might be the way. 

[railsquid]

Yes, two of the 5531.

[Clayton]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

Yes, two of the 5531.

Cool thanks for verifying that. Next question is how many switch boxes can I put on a 5529 power point supply? Because if I can't find 15 manual switches for my yard and the spurs. I will need 21 box switch controllers for all of my turnouts. If it can't handle it I was planning to use my old MRC throttle ac connector to power 21 DPDT switches.

[cteno4]

The Tomix and Kato points are single coil machines that use dc and the polarity of the dc to fire the coil (and thus point) in either direction. The Bachmann, minitrix, and atlas points use two coils and you fire one or the other coil with ac to direct the point. The switch controllers just do a fast pulse of dc in one polarity one way and the other polarity when thrown the other way. You can use a momentary dpdt to mimic this but it can cause you to burn coils if you lean on the dpdt too long and also the points fire the best with a very sort pulse of power. There’s a better and cheaper solution using a capacitor to do a momentary discharge to fire the points that used a regular toggle dpst switch (cheap and easy to get small ones) so you see the direction the point was thrown. You can also add directional leds to the control board pretty easily to it. It’s a very simple circuit of the switch a capacitor and a 12v dc power supply. 
 

more here

 

 

I can get you George stillwell’s pdfs if you would like them.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Clayton]

@cteno4 cool thanks!! Yes this would be great to have! Building a unit to layout board will be more realistic as in dispatcher style. I will need to go in this direction. I though I saw somewhere the voltage was 15v for the switches instead of 12v? 

Edited April 30, 2020 by MoPac

[cteno4]

Pretty sure it’s 12v for both Tomix and Kato. The power supply to the throttles are like 15v but some of that is eaten up in the circuit. The BCD is a 12v supply that was calibrated to give the perfect pulse for the coils on Kato and Tomix points. Luckily the single coils on the Kato and Tomix points are easily done with this little cap discharge and reverse recharge pulse to just work with a dpst switch! Cap discharge circuits for twin coil points you see on other brands (atlas, bachmann, minitrix, etc) are more complicated. It also lends itself to led indicators easily.

 

ill pm you the docs. George sadly passed away a few years back but my last communications with him were not to post his docs just pass them out directly as he was as he wanted to publish them, but never got there. I know some think it’s silly not to just post them publicly but I won’t as my last interaction with him that was not his wishes and I just pass that wish on to others. He was a very good egg and spent a lot of time helping folks directly answering questions and coming up with custom designs.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Clayton]

So sorry to hear this about you friend. Sad that he wasn't able to publish his work.

[brill27mcb]

On 4/30/2020 at 12:09 PM, MoPac said:

Cool thanks for verifying that. Next question is how many switch boxes can I put on a 5529 power point supply? Because if I can't find 15 manual switches for my yard and the spurs. I will need 21 box switch controllers for all of my turnouts. If it can't handle it I was planning to use my old MRC throttle ac connector to power 21 DPDT switches.

To answer your basic question, you can put as many switch boxes as you want onto your power supply, because you are probably only going to throw one switch at a time, right? The boxes do not draw any current except when you move the toggle and cause one stiff wire to flick past another inside, making the momentary contact to power the turnout's coil. They are really that simple inside...

 

Rich K.

[Clayton]

12 hours ago, brill27mcb said:

To answer your basic question, you can put as many switch boxes as you want onto your power supply, because you are probably only going to throw one switch at a time, right? The boxes do not draw any current except when you move the toggle and cause one stiff wire to flick past another inside, making the momentary contact to power the turnout's coil. They are really that simple inside...

 

Rich K.

Thanks for answering this question Rich. No, I will not throw multiple switches at one time.

  Now it will be up to me if I am going to either use 20+ electrical Tomix switch boxes or try my luck at wiring 20+ DPDT switches to another DC source, since this will not be connected to the DCC system. Or I will just use four Tomix switch boxes for only the two triple switches and make all of my other switches manual.