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I replaced all of my Lionel 022 and 072 switches with K-line switches. Previously my Lionel switches were controlled using TMCC-SC-1's and they worked fine. When I connected the K-line's to the SC-1's I found that some of the clusters of 4 switches (if they included at least one of opposite direction) would not work when testing the switches one at a time in all possible configurations. In more than 75% of the clusters I would select a switch position that would turn off the light on the SC-1 and then nothing would switch until I moved that switch manually back to it's previous positon. Most of the time it was a LH switch moving to the curve position. I found a work-round but would like to understand what is the cause. By the way, in measuring voltage on the switches, when everything worked one terminal had 2.8 to 3.2 volts on it. When the lights went out on the SC-1, I measuring 0 volts on a similar terminal on the switch causing the problem.

A second issue just came up. I have 2 bridges connecting the inside and outside loops. On one side of the layout I have a RH switch on both sides of the bridge. They are wired such that when one is in straight the other is in curve. When activated by the anti-derailing function, they switch to opposite directions allowing the trains to cross the bridge and stay on the same loop--this works fine. On the opposite of the layout I have 2 more switches that provide the same, except one is RH and the other is LH. To have the trains remain on the same loop they must both switch in the same direction. All I did on the two RH switches was reverse the wires on the directional posts. On the LH-RH switches, the had to be wired the same. This turned out the lights on one of the switches and when I tried to change direction (using anti-derailing) on the switch still lighted, it just chattered. Has anyone tried this type of control with the K-lines and come up with a fix that doesn't require relays?

Any help much appreciated.

Ken

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Ken,

I believe that it's been reported on the Forum in the past that at least one version of K-Line's remote switches have different control lever assemblies for the 'Right' and 'Left' turnouts -- they are apparently wired differently internally.  This would imply that alternative switching using SC-1's, SC-2's or AIU's must take this into consideration.

There is also the possibility that one bank of relays in the SC-1 is the problem.  I believe that one of them is hardwired internally to power as they come from the factory, intended for use not with turnouts but to turn accessories on and off, and that this can cause issues when turnouts are switched using this bank.  However, this problem would also affect Lionel switches not just those from K-Line.

Hopefully one of these helps.

Mike

Last edited by Mellow Hudson Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. My switch configuration was originally all Lionel 022 & 072. The K-line are exact replacements and wired to the same SC-1's. Never had the problem with the originals. I have opened the SC-1 and the K-lines (and nothing jumps out in the SC-1 and both LH & RH K-line look pretty much the same (opened a bad K-line and found a broken limit switch--found that in 2 switches).

Dummy me didn't realize the you could apply external power to the SC-1. Did that to all of them and the switches now all work.

As to the 2nd problem above, it may be more to what you suggested (different internal wiring). I have worked around it by controlling each switch with an Arduino and 2 additional relays. Still would like to have a better understanding of what is actually going on in both cases.

Ken

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