Powering Rokuhan Turntable.

Matthew Lawrence May 31, 2019

  1. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    Can anyone help me please? I'm in a bit of a dilemma. I just received a Rokuhan Turntable with the controller, connector cable and instructions. If I read this right, I need the Rokuhan Train Controller to power the tracks on the bridge and roundhouse. However, I don't have one. I have a railpower 1400 power pack which powers my entire line. How do I make the two work together? Will this cause any damage to the turntable?
    Thankas
     
  2. tjdreams

    tjdreams TrainBoard Member

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    First off the 1400 is a HO powerpack i would not be using it to power my Z scale trains
    The Rokuhan turntable is designed to work on 10v DC The 18V AC your 1400 puts out will Fry the Rokuhan turntable.
    You will need to get the Rokuhan A028 AC power adaptor to power the turntable rotation.
    While i do not recommend it in theroy the tracks could be powered from your current 1400.
     
  3. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    The 1400 was a typo. It should have been 1300. So if I understand your answer correctly, It is possible to power the tracks with the 1300 instead of a Rokuhan train controller, an I am assuming that the feed for this would have to go before the gap joiner. I have the AC adaptor coming. Should be here within a week or so. I'll just have to wait and see.

    Is there anything else I need to know?
     
  4. tjdreams

    tjdreams TrainBoard Member

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    Their are 2 power input connections on the controler that came with the turntable A round barol conector for the Rokuhan A028 to plug into. This will power the turntable and alow you to rotate the bridge.
    The other is marked "Train Input" This one will power the track on the bridge and the corsponding track its ligned up with. You connect this to the same wires that power your track.

    David
     
  5. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    Dave.

    I want to be absolutely sure of what I'm doing here. I don't want to damage anything. So I could use the 1300 but I have to connect it to the Train Input side of the turntable controller, then run a separate line from the track to the Train plug on the Turntable controller.

    What I was thinking of doing of just connecting the 1300 to the incoming track which is blocked from the rest of the layout and use it to move the trains on/off the bridge and in/out of the roundhouse. I don't want to have to invest in an RC-02 or 03.

    So in theory, I have two separate controllers which are NOT tied together. One for track power, and one for the turntable.
     
  6. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    Dave:

    I have another question. Will the RC-02 work with the turntable controller? Are the hookups the same.
     
  7. tjdreams

    tjdreams TrainBoard Member

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    This will not work The roundhouse tracks including the incomming track is feed through the turntable bridge which only powers the track its aligned with.
    So once the turntable is rotated their will be no power getting to it from the incoming track. The turntable Bridge needs to be powered through the turntable controler for it to work properly. The only way around this would be to wire each roundhouse track with its own power feed and cut off switch.

    In theory yes The turntable rotation is powered by the A028 and the track powered by the 1300.

    Yes it will work the Hookups are the same You can plug the A028 into the RC-02 then snap the Turntable controler to it and wire it as shown in the instructions to power your entire layout. If you still want to use the 1300 to power the layout and the RC-02 for the turntable and roundhouse tracks you will have to i wire it for 2 powerfeed option with a DPDT on/off/on switch so only one powersuply is connected to the tracks at a time. Otherwise when the loco passes the isulation joint the wheels will be making contact with both powersupplys. this will cause a short which will likely fry both powersuplys as well as the loco.

    Unless your running Marklin loco's i would recommend just powering layout and turntable with the RC-02 snapped onto the turntable controler and the A028
    If your running Marklin Loco's you may need to do some facy wiring and use the 1300 to power the tracks As some marklin loco's will constantly pop the breaker on the RC-02

    David
     
  8. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    OK. I'm getting mixed messages here.

    Dave, are you saying that the turntable bridge itself controls the power for all tracks, both the approach and roundhouse, through the turntable controller and the RC-02 or 03? If the gap joiner is used, could I not power the rest of my layout with the 1300? I don't want to have to completely rewired my entire layout just for this turntable. I'd sooner give it up and leave things the way they are now.
     
  9. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    This is all very confusing. I think I may have bitten off more then I can chew.
     
  10. tjdreams

    tjdreams TrainBoard Member

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    Yes.

    Yes you could.
    but this is where the problem with using 2 controlers comes in, When the locomotive trucks cross over the isulation joint you will have the one truck drawing power from the 1300 powered side and the other truck drawing power from the RC-02/03 powered side This will cause a short circut.
    There are ways around this issue
    --the easiest is to just use the rokuhan RC-02 or 03 to power it all,
    --or you could wire in a DPDT switch to use both the 1300 and the RC-02/03 (by only powering the track from one or the other at a time)
    --or you can splice in the track power feed from the 1300 to the track input on the turntable controler.

    You will be ok Don't give up
    It all sounds a lot more complicated than it is.

    David
     
  11. Matthew Lawrence

    Matthew Lawrence TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks.

    I been giving this matter a great deal of thought and I don't think I'm going to monkey around with the wiring on the turntable. I don't want to void the warranty. as for the rest, I'm not that handy with adding DPDT switches and as for using the 1300, I do this with other sections of track and I don't have any problems going from one to the other as long as they are going in the same direction and the throttles are set the same. All I want to do is power my layout with the 1300 and the turnout tracks and so on with the RC-02/03. I understand about the short circuit, I've had enough of them over the years, but if both packs are set the same direction, and the throttle power is the same, I would think this would solve the problem.
     

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