I have recently been given a substantial amount of HO railroad equipment and I am rather new to the hobby. 1) Could someone direct me to a simple diagram for the wiring of Tortoise turnouts?, and, 2) Could someone then direct me to the way in which the Tortoise turnouts are then wired into a DCC system Further, I am not very knowledgeable about electricity and/or electronics. Thank you, Schoolmaster
Hello schoolmaster welcome to trainboard!! If you check in the inspection pit forum, i had the same question about a week ago and the guys here gave me some pretty good anwsers. So if you head over into that forum you can check it out!
Welcome to TrainBoard, Schoolmaster! You were a Schoolmaster? I have to go to school until Jan 31. :angel: :angel: The two outer contacts from the Tortoise are for the motor. They run with DC, you change the polarity to throw the turnout. I use a DPDT switch or something more complicated. :angel: The other contacts are for frog polarity and additional wish. With the Tortoise comes a sheet of paper with instructions - usually. :angel: I run my trains with DCC, but the turnouts manually (most). Wolfgang
I STRONGLY recommend Alan Gartner's web site for things like this. Alan has a treasure-trove of information. I have wired my layout using this website as a guide. Its extremely well done. His section on wiring turnouts and DCC turnouts is also EXCELLENT! FIRST I recommend you review and read the instructions that came w/ the Tortoise machine. They are pretty straight forward. Next, for more information, here's Wiring for DCC by Alan Gartner. Scroll down the page to more info' on wiring the Tortoise. >>>El Linko<<<
Welcome to Trainboard. If you didn't get a copy of the instruction sheet with your tortoise, I didn't see any good places to find a copy on the internetweb via google. The outside two pins power the motor; put 12V DC onto these and the motor goes one way; swap the polarity (double-pole double-throw switch wired in an X is the easiest way) and the motor goes the other way. Unlike solenoid ("snap") points throwing devices, you don't need to remove volts when you're finished; you can continue to power the tortoise throwing an already thrown point, and it won't melt. The middle six contacts are a pair of SPDT switches, which can be used for power-routing. Digitrax and NCE both make decoders that can talk to Tortoises and make them DCC. DCC Specialities make one called the "Hare" which clips to the bottom of the Tortoise and is therefore very easy to use: no fiddling, no wiring. The Wiring For DCC site mentioned above covers wiring DCC onto a tortoise. Worth a read.
Welcome to TrainBoard schoolmaster. The above website is a good resource for DCC. In answer to your initial questions; 1. A quick check around found a .pdf file of the Tortoise instructions. The first diagram on the last page shows the DPDT switch method of control mentioned above. 2. Have a look at the NCE Switch-it .pdf file to give you an idea of how you can connect the Tortoise via DCC. There are other methods available to do this using other manufacturers equipment, but this will give you an idea. The diagram is on the last page.
Friends, I am grateful and appreciative of the several responses I have received to my question about wiring the Tortoise turnout. Each reply has been informative and at least one reply has included the wiring diagram and pertinent information. I just to thank each of you. Quite a bunch of helpful and sharing people. On response did note, however, that they were still in school until January 31st. Perhaps, with the right connections we could come up with some kind of a written excuse for him/her. I have files full of excuses from parents and kids. Surely, one would fit. Kind regards, Schoolmaster
