Wiring an Atlas O turntable for command control with an Electric RR Co Mini Commander II receiver for operation with Lionel TMCC or LEGACY

 Not exactly what you looking for but a few of us have used a engine upgrade kit to control the table speed  and direction. (no automatic indexing)

I'm not sure why you would want to do this with the Atlas "O" turntable. It already has Automatic indexing (sort of)  It stops briefly at each  stall and lines up perfectly. I used a DPDT center off toggle wired like an HO reversing switch  to control the table direction and stop.  

I control my Bowser DC motor turntable using a TMCC AMC which works great for this application.

Good luck with your installatin.

 Happy Railroading!

Stan

I have begun to wire the Mini Commander II receiver to run my Atlas turntable.  I will assign the turntable with an engine number. I am mounting the receiver in the Lionel 6-34120 shed. Note the bi-polar lamp that comes with the shed.  Is there a way to utilize the lamp as a directional lamp when you press the Legacy cab controller (Green & Red)(Clockwise vs Counter Clockwise on the turntable)?  The plug is a 3 prong,  where would I plug it in on the Mini-commander board in order to work (if it could work).   Or do I have to put in one green led lamp for one direction, and a red green lamp for the opposite direction? 

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!   THANKS IN ADVANCE.

The led could be a pain. Front lamp and rear lamp ports on the MC2. You'll have to identify voltage out and polarity by pins. One color will use +voltage and one - voltage. So, it may be easier to put 2- 3mm LED's in there.

This is Stan or GRJ territory.

You need a common cathode 3-pin red/green LED.  Wire the common cathode to ground and wire the red & green leads to the respective LED light outputs.

Since it has three pins, I assume you have the correct LED.  You will have to cobble it up to the two LED outputs by splicing it to the two connectors.  One of the black leads to the center (common cathode) and each headlight to the outside red/green terminals.

Thanks John,

Do you think I will need to add resistors to avoid burn out?  Track voltage is about 16V to 16.4V. 

John,

See diagram pic:

The Three prong bi-polar lamp in picture

* Wire Middle prong to common?

* Wire one prong to front lamp?

* Wire the other prong to rear lamp?

I think the voltage would be to high. You have to check it and see what comes off of the board or give ERR a call. The pin doesn't need to connect back to the main connector common. It's a board gnd on one of the direction lamp pins. I was trying to say that when I was talking about checking it with a meter for the output. I don't know if you can tie them together. call ERR.

The LED light outputs from the MC-II are designed to power a single LED and are current limited.  You don't need any resistors.

I don't see any picture of the LED, but just follow the leads to the LED, the center electrode is the common.  Now, I don't know if it's common cathode or common anode, but the most common is the common cathode.

I wired my atlas turntable using the mini commander instructions.  It works fine.  

Great idea.  

Ok.  Done!!  All works great.  Thanks everyone!!!

FYI.  The 5mm 3Pin Common Cathode Water clear Bi-Color Red Green Light Led Diodes work perfect with the Mini-Commander 2. for the Atlas turntable.  They fit the holes on each side of 6-34120 shed that you can order from Lionel.  GunnerJohn was right about the center electrode to be the common.  It is for sure the common cathode.  Thanks again John!!

You can buy the Diodes on Ebay for .08Ea.

I love success stories.   The center pin is always the common on those, but some are common anode.  I use both types, and common anode are what I need for TMCC applications as the lighting outputs are negative in respect to frame ground.  However, probably 80% of them are common cathode.

On your next build of this type, I have a clever way to hide the PGM/RUN switch.  On some locomotives, I put a reed switch inside the plastic shell and just stick a little magnet on the frame out of sight.  To program, I just plop the magnet over the reed switch for programming, and then remove it to run.  No holes anywhere, and no exposed switches.

I like your message about the reed switch....  I will utilize that idea next time!!

I figured that out when I customized this little gem and put TMCC into it.  This was the RMT speeder, but it got a larger back cab, paint, directional lighting and markers, and TMCC. 

There was simply no place to hide the switch, so I hit on the magnet idea.  The red arrow points to my little magnet, I should to give it another paint job to better hide it again.  The green arrow points to the location of the reed switch.

Question:

What is the difference between the Mini Commander II and Mini Commander II with coupler control?

Will either one work with the Atlas turntable to control it?

Thanks!

The MC-II will do it, you address it like an engine and use the direction control on the remote to change the rotation.  The throttle will control the speed of rotation.  As was discussed above, a 3-pin common cathode Red/Green LED on the LED outputs will show you the TT direction of travel.

Personally, I used the Lionel SC-2 to control my TT movement.

Thanks gunrunnerjohn!