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.......Soldering Tools and Supplies I Use...............Option to Reverse Servo Throw...................
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.......--- Turnout Control/Switch Box Wiring ---
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On this page we will go into wiring the turnout control/switch box. Again you could put the following in/on a control panel you built vs. using the 3D printed box and tops.
Above is the wiring diagram for the turnout switch box. At the bottom right you see boxes for the 'Servo Controller' and the 'Servo' that will be used to throw the turnout. You use different lengths of servo cables to connect the three items together. The cable comes in different lengths and they can be daisy-chained together. Also the SPDT slide switch is optional. To see if you want to use it or not go ( HERE )
Now we will start the actual wiring of the turnout control circuit. In this case I'll use one of the 3D printed tops but this could be a conventional control panel top also. In that case you might want to do the wiring on a small dummy top with holes in it for the switches and LED's and then move the completed wiring to the control panel.
You need a resistor in the circuit to protect the LED from burning out even with the 5 volt power supply. You are safest using a 220 ohm resistor or one with a greater value. The greater the value the dimmer the LED will be. Try some different value resistors and see which value you like the best, light intensity wise. At the moment I've settled on 470 ohms but might still go higher at some point. The red shows up brighter than the green but that might be good as I'm using red for the divergent route and normally wouldn't want that chosen in most cases as the normal route. You could use other colors than red and green.
From this point on the pictures should pretty much tell the story. If not contact me at ( contact20 (at) 1fatgmc (dot) com ). The wiring might seem a little complicated at first glance but once you have done a couple of these it shouldn't take much over 15 minutes to doing one. The under $8.00 cost for a servo, all of the parts shown here and for the servo controller should make up for having to do a little work ;-). Turnout control from the control panel to the turnout for $8.00 or less is really a good deal.
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You will find the wiring much easier if you are holding the top in a vise or printed circuit board holder.
The SPDT slide switch above is optional. To see if you want to use it or not go ( HERE )
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=== Options to control more than one servo with one switch box ===
It is easy to control more that one servo with a single switch box using a switch-box as shown below along with the servo controller shown after this page.
The wiring diagram shows how to connect to a second servo controller that is connected to a second servo. This is handy when it comes to throwing more than one turnout from one switch. Nice for a crossover or maybe a route change through a couple turnouts. The next wiring diagram shows how to add even more servos to those being controlled by a single switch box.
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I'll get the print files up on my thingiverse.com account ( HERE ) for a switch box like above.
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For a video on testing the switch-box, servo controller and servos click ( HERE ) or on the image above.
For more on the option to use or not use the slide switch connected to the toggle switch go to the link below or move onto wiring the servo controller. It only takes a couple minutes to do as there is only one wire and one resistor that needs to be soldered. After than just connect the cable from the switch box to the controller and a cable from it to the servo and you are in business. To move onto the servo controller click ( HERE ).
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