Operating Kato and Tomix turnouts using Toggle Switches

[Anvalo]

Recently i made some videos about several ways to use a toggle switch for operating Kato and Tomix turnouts.

This is one example where a Double Pole Double Throw (ON)-OFF-(ON) toggle switch is used.

 

More videos you can find here:

https://www.youtube.com/@anvalosmodelrailway/featured

 

André

Edited March 1 by Anvalo

[cteno4]

Anvalo,

 

Nice videos! Have you tried the BCD circuit. Similar to your Kato./tomix circuit using the inrush back flow of a single cap but you only need to use a regular dpst switch. Throwing one way discharges the cap and throwing the other way only allows a similar inrush burp about the same as the discharge. Nice thing is the regular, non monetary switch shows the direction the point was thrown and much wider and cheaper selection of toggle switches.

 

cheers

 

ejff

[Anvalo]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the pdfs, very interesting stuff to read.

The circuit with only one capacitor and a SPDT toggle switch is also in one of my videos, see below.

This is probably the simplest and still a safe way to use for throwing a Kato or Tomix turnout.

I only added a diode in the positive lead to prevent the capacitor discharging to other turnouts on the same power supply.

 

The amp meter is to slow to show the charging current but is does show that when the circuit is idle there's no current flowing from the power supply.

 

André

[cteno4]

André,

 

yeah the bcd circuit is about as simple as you can get a cap discharge for points. Ray got things down to the very basics and even adding LED indicators is as simple as it can get. Ray was a great electrical engineer and liked to see what could be done with just simple component wiring and avoiding circuit boards even as he ran across so many modelers that just freaked at a circuit board being involved. Like your examples it can easily be done on a simple terminal strip. I had done a little prototype of a few circuits soldered onto a prototyping board with little pcb terminals to make things just a little cleaner and solid and Ray objected as it wasnt necessary! He liked to keep things simple.

 

You can use multiple circuits on the same power supply with no issues. He did a pdf there showing how you can also fire ladders with relays and also reset a LED control panel and points on power up. This gets much more complicated and now days if you want to go that route there are many automated systems that would probably do it easier [but more expensive!]. But as a replacement for the basic old mechanical power throws the cap discharge does so much better at throwing points cleanly and consistently. After a year or two we sort of gave up using the old kato point controllers on the club setup as they just got randomly unreliable. The components are now super inexpensive now days as well with just cap and spdt required. 

 

Nice video of the circuit showing the pulse from charging. Thanks for keeping the simple cap discharge circuits alive!

 

Cheers,

 

jeff

[mp44_tom]

Hé Dré

 

Very nice and clear video ! Thanks !! 👍

 

now if i wanted to integrate red and green leds , how would i do that ☺️

 

Tom

 

[mp44_tom]

Already experimented and it worked….

 

btw, i had to use 3 1500uf capacitors to get the double crossover to work

 

https://youtu.be/UpjZSa41UqQ
 

 

[Anvalo]

Hi Tom,

I see you already worked out how to add leds to this circuits.

Maybe the circuit with only 1 (or 3 parallel like yours) capacitor is not the best one for the Kato double crossover.

I believe that this double turnout has some coils in parallel so when the capacitor charges not all the pointmotors gets enough power.

 

Hope you like to try this circuit on your double crossover, i don't have one here to test it out.

And i am a bit curious how this works and if there's any difference in throwing force.

In this drawing are two versions. One with a resistor to lower the current from the power supply and one without a resistor.

An optional diode can be added to prevent discharging to other circuits but it should also work fine without one.

[mp44_tom]

Hi André

 

I will try it out, but first i have to order some 2200 uF capacitors…..

 

i first tried with 1 capacitor, but the turnout hardly moved…. Then i added a second one and it was almost enough, and with a third one it worked fine….

 

i can’t damage the turnout with my setup can I ?