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…......................--- Sawmill Wiring Pt. 5 ---
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Finished the sawmill control panel to the point of installing it and finishing the wiring to the $2 servo controllers.
I believe it would of been impossible to of gotten all the components and wiring into the 4.5 x 16.5 control panel without using the solder pads. There are right at 325 solder joints in the panel and a good number of those are in small areas on the solder pads made from inexpensive printed circuit board (PCB).
The toggle switches used for the servos/turnouts (15) control the indicator LED's and also trigger the $2 servo controllers so that they drive the servo one way or the other to throw the turnout. The inexpensive controllers also allow one to set how far the throwbar moves in both directions which eliminates over powering the points against the stock rails.
The toggle switches shown above and the $2 servo controllers are all that is needed to control the servos/turnouts. You don't need expensive controllers or an Arduino or a DCC controller if you don't want to use those or no how. The wiring is simple and you can readjust the throw of the servo at any time in a minute or so. More info on the parts and wiring ( HERE ).
There are also 4 DPDT toggle switches that control track power to 4 sawmill sidings so that an engine can be parked on them and the power turned off. At the bottom right above one can see a small DPST slide switch that can be attached to the toggle switches servo controller output. If you find that the servo is throwing the turnout the wrong way flip that switch and it will reverse it. One can try and determine which way the servo will face under the turnout and wire the toggle switch correctly and avoid the switch but for 25 cents and a minute of work I add the switches and don't worry about it. Install everything............throw the turnout................throws wrong way.................flip the switch and all is good .
I ran one servo controller wire to check things out and also 5v input with a plug on that. I'd check wiring as I went along from one toggle switch to the next by turning power on and making sure the right LED's were working.
The panel was designed with Fusion and printed with a filament printer. If you missed that more info ( HERE ).
There are 1/16" (.0625) holes drilled for the LED's. I put tape on this side of the board and then inserted the LED's. The tape keeps them from coming out the other side. Then put a drop or two of fast CA glue into the hole from the wire side to hold the LED in place. I should of pulled the invisible tape off sooner as some of the CA held the tape in a few places and made it harder to remove.
I'm using 1k resistors on the LED's and they are still really bright although they look different in actual viewing vs. in a picture.
If you haven't made or used solder pads consider them for your next project if you need to make a number of connections in a small area.
3 wire servo cable is used between the panel and the servo controller and on to the servo. I use the wire also for the power to the turnout frog and if it is wrong I only need to reverse the servo plugs and it is right. To avoid cutting up a number of servo cables to go from the panel to the servo controller Ed made up those cables all to the right length depending on how far the controller was from the panel.
To be continued and a link to this whole build ( HERE ).
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