Kato turnout throw current?

TwinDad Dec 12, 2013

  1. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    Anybody know what the current required to throw a Kato turnout (HO or N)?

    I know how to do the wiring, but I'm working on a computer control, and I need to know how much drive current is required.

    Thanks!
     
  2. SOCAL-Man

    SOCAL-Man TrainBoard Member

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    FWIW, the info I've seen around says the turnouts have about 20 ohms of resistance. At 12 volts that will give you a few millisecond current draw of around 0.5 amps. But it is so short-lived that from a real world perspective it is essentially a transient load.
     
  3. lexon

    lexon TrainBoard Member

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    Which turnouts? They have twin coil and DCC turnouts.

    Twin coils requite about 12 to 14 volts AC or DC or use a Circuitron Snapper.

    DCC turnouts take power right from the track.

    Rich
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2013
  4. SOCAL-Man

    SOCAL-Man TrainBoard Member

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    Speaking at least about the Kato N scale turnouts they are ALL single coil turnouts that are actuated by 12 volt DC current and change position by changing the polarity of the DC voltage. As packages they are equipped with a separate wire to provide power to the turnout control circuit.
     
  5. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks, fellas. I was asking about the non-DCC versions.

    Sounds like 12V, 500mA, short pulse duration is the ticket...
     
  6. lexon

    lexon TrainBoard Member

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    Power

    At least that much current. In the past, some have burned out the coil by holding down the push button too long. The CDU, capacitive discharge unit prevents that. The Snapper operates off of AC or DC and can snap more that one twin coil at a time. I have made my own CDU with a resistor and about 10,000 ufd electrolytic cap.
    Many DC power packs had a 16 VAC set of terminals for twin coil turnouts.

    Rich
     
  7. smallfry

    smallfry New Member

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    I am also n scale unitrack with 2x4 layout, wet to dcc for the first time [love it] and I have 5 turnouts wired as fifer said. what wall wart can I use to power them amps and volts
     
  8. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    If you're using a wall wart to generate the DC to drive the Kato turnout controls, you'll need 12VDC and about 500mA. If you're grabbing an AC wall wart to power the Kato AC/DC adaptor, then you'll need about 16VAC and (still) 500mA minimum. Extra current (amps) capacity in your wall wart will not hurt.

    If you want to use it with the double crossover, you'd better plan on considerably more current than that (since you're throwing at least two throwbars at a time), but I don't know how much since I don't have one to measure.

    I actually hooked one up to an oscilloscope the other day.... with an old DC power pack, using the AC accessory terminals (16VAC) and the Kato DC adaptor hooked to a Kato controller, I measured 800mA peak (~ 500mA RMS)* in a square wave. It looked like the minimum pulse duration was about 50mS. Not sure if the switch would trip on anything shorter or not, that was the smallest pulse I could generate with the Kato lever.



    * The Kato DC adaptor is just a bridge rectifier with no filtering, so the waveform is a full-wave rectified 60Hz sine wave. Hence the "peak" and "RMS" on a "DC" signal...
     
  9. Wild Turkey

    Wild Turkey TrainBoard Member

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    I have one of the Radio Shack Enercell 18-24v 1A AC Wallwart Overkill? I have 1 dbl crossover and 5 #6's. If I understand everything right all i need is the Kato HO/N 24842 Unitrack DC Convertor? Then I need the turnouts on their own busbar isolated from the dcc track power.

    http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...ic-Ridge-in-N-3rd-attempt&p=978184#post978184
     

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