transistor control of coil turnout machie

[tankist]

CONSOLIDATED:

looking at options of controlling those peco switch machines and came across this website http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/

i really like the idea of relegating the high currents from buttons to semiconductor components so i looked at his transistor controlled circuit.

this looks prommissing

[T-Man]

Are you sure you do not use a momentary switch?
I'll take a second look.
Second look didn't help.
Are we on DCC with 20 v DC current. The switches I use are AC my old HO AHM switches are AC.

[T-Man]

Bowden hobby circuits
You will be interested in relay control circuits. They use momentary switches.

[tworail]

Moved this to technical model train forum - seems the best place for it.

[tankist]

ordered parts required to build CDU's for 15 turnouts and about 4 charging supplies for them.prototype boards will be coming from ebay but to my surprise discrete parts were Significantly cheaper on your average electronic parts retailer. ordered from newark.com, liked working with it much better then digikey as far as finding best priced alternatives . hopefully processing and shiping will be at least on par.

Followup:
i really like the great length newark went about packaging. inside the package separate carton boxes for lots of items. they seem to be aware and cater to hobby crowd.
recomended.

[tankist]

Ladies and gentelmen, here it is
and the most awesome part - surprisingly it even works!


powered by separate 18V suply for HP printer



here is the voltage comparator based current blocking charge unit with 2 discharge transistors. basically ready to operate 1 turnout as is . LED indicates "charged". while i'm not going to see it normally i chose to keep it for troubleshooting purposes (and since i really like glowing LEDs). activation of coils is by shorting the appropriate double pin headers. the 2 wire terminals on the left connect to additional discharge boards (6 channels - 3 turnouts each). the lone pin header carries the comparator input to the next boards.

no sticky welded buttons and burned out coils for me
it does look quite ugly but it will be hidden from view anyways. i still need to see if the 25V 2200mF capacitor will throw more then one turnout at once.

[T-Man]

I like it. The board looks professional.

[tankist]

thats because you don't see other side
but a great lesson learned - next time i will be developing and etching my own PCB. the extra cost and time spent will be more then compensated by the quality of end product and most importantly time spent.

[tankist]

pluggin on.
middle board needs power feeds and one more sistor per channel

[tankist]

just so it links:


quick vid of my Control panel and CDU during use.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj_GGW0_nXw&fmt=6