Power switches for individual stalls on an Atlas turntable

They look like a good solution, you just need a resistor if you power the LED from your track power.  I was looking from something like this for my own project.

Thanks

thanks Dan, that sounds cool

but i am not an electrician .... any idea how i would add the transistor and what type of transistor i need to get?  i want it powered by the track and the light to come on when the track is powered

thanks

You just need a resistor, 1K is a good size.  If you want long life from the LED's, add a diode in series with the resistor as well.

So the resistor, diode, and LED will all be in series.  One side of that string will connect to ground, the other side to the switched power to the stall track.

thanks a ton

any recommendation where i should get the diode and resister?

If buying those switches from Adafruit, hence already paying for shipping, they sell:

A simple 18 or more contact rotary switch will work.  You will not need to operate more than one stall at a time.  More than 18 if you have external stalls adjacent to the 18 stall round house.  Hook up the rotary switch in series with the turn table track and in series with a momentary push button switch used when you want to move engines (push button switch shown black below).

Turntable construction is detailed in post on page one of the below topic.

https://ogrforum.com/...ra-027-layout?page=1

Charlie

wow, i am not that good

i guess a follow up question for the forum -- does anyone have a schematic for the wiring of the stalls for the atlas turntable? 

I bought some that run on 12-24VDC, 20amp.  They work great.  You need the diode for the LEDs.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@swise posted:

I bought some that run on 12-24VDC, 20amp.  They work great.  You need the diode for the LEDs.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also use these for powering various sidings:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...le?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm going to pick up some of those for my TT, they look good for the task.  I'm also wiring it to power using a couple of SC2 TMCC boxes so I can control the TT and stall power from my remote.

For my turntable tracks, I used dtdp (double throw, double pole) switches. These switches have an up, down and center position. Up powers one track, down powers a second track and the center is off for both tracks. I only need one turntable track on at a time, the one where the engine is going to/from. No need for complicated electronics. So to power 8 tracks, I use four of these switches.

Switches, terminal strips and DC drive for the atlas turntable:

Wire connection schematic that is on the back of the panel, so I can see where all the wires should go. I then label all the wires, so they end up in the right place. I use colours that match the wire colours that I plan on using. In this case, all of the wires are either red for track power and black for ground.

The front of the panel, with 8 powered tracks, and one switch to turn the Atlas turntable clockwise, counter clockwise, or off (center position of the switch)

Design schematic for the wiring. I did this using an Excel spreadsheet, sizing things correctly for the size of the switches and terminal strips. It may take a few tries to get the sizing right. This allows you to have clear label names, so the wires get connected to the right place.

The labels on the front show the track number (T!, etc) inside a CP logo. You can do the same using a version of the logo for any railroad. The same label is then on the track, so you can easily see the number of each track. Using the railroad logo makes it look better on the layout.

However the electronic LED idea is cool and would work well.

Here is a wiring diagram I used for my previous post above on using a Rotary switch to select individual stall to be powered.

Picture below of control panel with rotary switch with black knob and small black push button switch to apply power to track selected.

Much simpler than some methods to do the same thing.

Charlie

thanks a ton, very helpful, appreciate it