Introducing The PistonBroke Line

[OBJack]

Thanks Will, you are too kind.
And Tom,Thanks for your input. I have not been able to find the thin tape you talk about. I remember Someone somewhere said it was car pinstripping tape, would this be the case? I will keep looking and have a go at it soon as I need to add a few more hares to a few more turnouts so a new switchboard is in the offing.

This is how the prototype came into being

I know I usually complicate matters more than necessary, as I have stationary decoders ( Hares) driving the tortoise motors that switch the turnouts

Each Hare controls two tortoise switch motors

but it makes it easier to use LEDs (ie no resistors needed) in the control panel, as the power comes from the Hare decoder which I guess must be low voltage.

After cutting the polycarbonate to the same size as the graphic, the next step in the control panel was to drill holes for the switches and LEDs.
I clamped the printout between the polycarbonate and a backing board then marked and drilled the holes, I used a smaller drill bit first off, then with the correct bit enlarged the holes.

The resultant poly look

The plastic remains on, and a minor problem ( besides not being able to cut a straight line) was the drill made a bit of a mess of some holes in the paper as it passed thru.

Then the switches and LEDs were put in place

Switches #6 & #7 each control the turnouts above and below them, So that the turnouts are always aligned.
The switches I have used are DPDT momentary on- centre off switches, which means the switches return to the centre off position, and so that enables the turnout to be controlled by the cab/throttle once again.
IE: if the switch remains on then the turnout cannot be operated from the throttle.( Switch overrides the throttle)
The LEDs are bipolar 3mm.
The silver 5mm blue LEDs are to be used if I can get a train detection system running.

Then I started burning my fingers with the soldering

I still don't know how to hold the wire steady enough for long enough to make a nice neat connection,.... a clothes peg? To big?

More wires & nearly there

The white blue and yellow wires go from the switch, back to the Hare decoder which controls the turnout
The green wires are connected to the LEDs, and go out to terminals on the respective Hare decoders.

We hooked it up and there was no resultant Bang or burning smell

So this is the result

A veritable XMAS tree of lights, doesn't mean to say we can understand what is happening on the RR.
Another problem was ........because there are two or three LEDs hooked up in parallel at each turnout so each switch position could be seen, one LED will be red while the other is green, it seems to me that the red always shines brighter and it seems the current may be taking the path of least resistance, ie the red may have a lower voltage requirement than the green? Anyone?
I'm not sure weather they are the right terms or not, can someone enlighten me?... And a Fix?

NB. The bright green LEDs are hooked up in series straight into my accessory Bus of 16v AC, they are just green LEDs and are at the throat of the turnout so they will always be green and all the same colour. There are 5 of them so each will be getting about 3v, so no resistors needed. And that's a bonus. :rock:

Everything is working as it should, (except for the dull green lights) and that is where I left things, and I'm sure the experimentation will continue while I try to find some answers.
Looks like the next stop is to find some pin striping tape huh?

Jack