Kato #4 Turnout Power Routing Question

[gavino200]

All my turnouts have been used for DCC for their lifetime. I don't recall if I ever changed the power routing screws on the back to facilitate DCC, but I don't think so. I'm currently running a temporary DC layout, and I'm having trouble with power routing with two turnouts.

 

What I want is to have the electricity only follow the open lines.

 

What's happening is that electricity is going to two lines regardless of how the switch is set.

 

I've tried changing the power routing and frog electrification screws. No improvement. I can only make the problem even worse.

 

These are the turnouts. The first controls weather the train turns onto a station siding or a second station siding. The second controls weather the train turns only the second or a third station siding. At the moment it's not possible to select only one of these trains to move.

 

 

This is the other end

 

 

Anyone know how the screws need to be set in order to have only one train move at a time?

[bill937ca]

This is what Digitrax says.

 

https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/layout-power-and-wiring/kato-unitrack/

 

More info from NTrak.

 

https://ntrak.org/resources/Documents/tNt/T-TRAK TipsNTechniques/TNT Unitrack Turnouts.pdf

[gavino200]

Actually I'm looking for someone who just knows the answer. I'm working on my automation layout and it's taking me every minute and braincell. My son wants to play with the DC layout while I do some boring stuff here. There's now way I can research the answer right now. Do you know which positions to set the screws in? Or if what I'm asking is possible?

[katoftw]

Aren't the screw positions labelled underneth?

 

Some older 2000s batch had the labels incorrectly being the opposite of what they should be.

 

Should be power route on and frog on for regular dc usage.

 

Power supply needs to come from single track side of turnout. If that wasn't done already.

Edited December 19, 2021 by katoftw

[gavino200]

There are separate screws for curve and and straight power route. Originally they were both set to "power route" but we still had the problem of current going to two tracks, which didn't make sense. I disconnected the junction at the other end to make sure that wasn't the problem.

[disturbman]

18 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Some older 2000s batch had the labels incorrectly being the opposite of what they should be.

 

 

[gavino200]

It seems to be a different problem. Maybe an internal short. These two junctions transfer power to both directions, regardless of the position of the junction switch. Changing to non-power routing is the only way to turn it off, but then it doesn't give power when power is needed.

 

For the moment, I'm just replacing these two junctions with two other ones that function normally. Unfortunately that cuts down our yard by three tracks. More on this later.

 

[brill27mcb]

It's actually quite simple to check the turnouts/points (they are not "junctions") if you have an ohmmeter, especially if they are removed from the layout like yours. In fact, you can determine your settings visually, and then confirm the operation with the ohmmeter.

 

1. If you look at each "pair of places" on the underside where a screw can go, one has a clear "break" line across the bottom between two metallic surface halves around the threaded hole. If you put the screw all the way down in that hole, it bridges those two metallic halves together, which provides a constant electrical connection, no matter which way the turnout is thrown. That's the true "Non-Power Routing" option, no matter what lettering (wrong or later corrected) is cast on the bottom plastic cover.

 

2. The other choice in each pair of places is just a threaded place to park the screw so you don't lose it, and putting it there leaves the power-routing circuitry alone to do its job. That's the true "Power Routing" option. You generally want to do both pairs of screw places the same way. One is for the frog-side rail of the curved branch of the turnout, and the other for the frog-side rail of the straight branch. (The two outside rails of the turnout can be seen to be continuous from end to end on Kato turnouts and therefore can not be power routed.)

 

3. The frog connection pair of places is similar. Bridging the two metallic surfaces by putting the screw in that place will connect power to the frog. Putting the screw in the other ("parking") place leaves the frog unconnected.

 

This is visible in the photos in the thread that disturbman linked to.

 

Rich K.

[gavino200]

I just spent some time on this. I think all my turnouts are working. confused myself for two reasons. First, I have a fairly complex system of turnouts in DC, which I'm not used to working with. I wasn't taking into account all the interactions between turnouts at both ends of the station. Second, I was getting inconsistencies due to bad electrical connections. I've currently got a pretty large layout powered by a single pair of feeders. For most of the loop a bad connection is countered by current going all the way around the track. But the trains go off the main loop they lose this redundant flow. A few sensitive connections were conducting some but not all of the time, giving me inconsistent and confusing results.

 

Solution - add feeders and troubleshoot connectors. But thanks for your troubleshooting suggestions. I definitely understand my Kato turnouts and power routing a lot more now.

[brill27mcb]

Glad you got things sorted out! It's surprising how much voltage drop there can be, even on a basic 4 x 8 foot layout. We once installed a Kato double crossover on one straight section of a large double-track loop. It does not conduct power straight through, and the trains were then gradually slowing down as they made their way around 3/4 of the oval until they reached the crossover and sped up again.

 

Rich K.