I am using the SE8C board to drive semaphore signals using Tortise point motors. The info that I can cobble together from Digitrax advises of 3 connections to each turnout motor, a m+ an m- and a connection for a 'sensor' that provides the position of the signal. These are connected to pins 1,8 and 3 respectively on the tortise turnout motor. My question is, do I have to connect the track bus (black and red wires) to pins 2 and 4 as you need to for connection to electro frog turnouts (Peco). I ask this question as I can't see how the pin 3 on the tortise turnout motor could provide a signal without a power supply. Thanks Simon
Simon, have a look at this page - Digitrax.com: Installing Semaphore Type Signals with SE8C Mostly I was after how it identifies the upper quadrant 45deg position when driven by a Tortoise. I get the impression it can stop the Tortoise mid throw for the 45deg position and can only assume it looks for the 0deg or 90deg input and when either disappears it stops the Tortoise at that point, now that the Tortoise has a break before make arrangement for the internal contacts. Internally, I also assume the SE8C knows which direction it is driving the Tortoise. The supplied diagram examples show only one input back from the Tortoise off contact pin 3, which is the 'normal' pin for the first contact pair. The SE8C output goes to pin 4 of the Tortoise, the common pin for the first contact pair. So in answer to your question, there needs to be a supply from the SE8C pin 2 to Tortoise pin 4. The connection from Tortoise pin 3 to SE8C pin 4 is for the position sensor. My question - has Digitrax only shown the normal or 0deg/red position in the diagram? If so, there is another connection for Semaphore 1, SE8C pin 5, that isn't showing a wire and I suspect this is connected to Tortoise pin 2 for the reverse or 90deg/green position.
