New Product! DC Tortoise Control Panel

[KE4NYV]

This is our Tortoise DC Control panel. Designed from the ground up with layouts and panels in mind. Our control panel will control a single Tortoise switch machine using simple +12VDC. When wired correctly, you get simple toggle switch control of the turnout, as well as red/green LED feedback of the position. The LED is controlled by the internal DPDT switch inside of the Tortoise. So it's won't change state until the Tortoise has physically moved position. Rear panel terminal blocks for daisy-chaining the control panels together. All solderless connections make wiring a snap! Designed to fit in a 1/2" panel using only a single 1" hole. Fascia plate for those who want a complete look right out of the box. Available without fascia plate for those who want to install into a custom panel.



The Tortoise DC Control Panel is small. Easily place them side by side for controlling multiple switch motors in a single area. The backside has parallel DC power terminal blocks (Blue) for feeding power to the switch motor as well as providing pass-through power to the next unit. The 8 position terminal block (green) is a pin-for-pin match with our Tortoise Interface module.



Spacing between the control board and the fascia plate is optimized for 1/2" plywood bench work.



Here we're showing a sample installation into a 1/2" plywood bench work. When mounted to a plywood structure like this, the switch ring nuts are not required.







Accepting orders starting today, in stock and ready to ship!

Place orders are http://www.rpc-electronics.com/tortdccontrol.php

Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions!

Jason
www.rpc-electronics.com

[DKS]

Just curious about the terms "closed" and "thrown." Seem ambiguous to me. I'd have gone for "through" and "diverging," which is closer to proto practice. Or maybe I'm totally off here...

[C855B]

Just curious about the terms "closed" and "thrown." ...

My guess it's an extension of Digitrax's nomenclature. "Through" and "diverging" is nominally better, but breaks down in yard or other non-mainline switching situations when neither route is favored... or even "through", for that matter. It also makes me think about the pictures of BNSF installations in the PNW where "sidings" begin and end with wye turnouts, where both routes are ostensibly "through".

I can't think of a catch-all. "Thataway" and "thisaway"? 

[DKS]

My guess it's an extension of Digitrax's nomenclature. "Through" and "diverging" is nominally better, but breaks down in yard or other non-mainline switching situations when neither route is favored... or even "through", for that matter. It also makes me think about the pictures of BNSF installations in the PNW where "sidings" begin and end with wye turnouts, where both routes are ostensibly "through".

As I understand it, "diverging" will always be the curved leg of a turnout, so it's not as ambiguous to me as perhaps others (except in the case of wyes). But "closed" and "thrown" make zero sense to me. Perhaps leave the panel blank, and supply a sheet of stickers with various terms, like "straight," "left," "right," etc.? Or even colored dots that correspond to the LED color?

 

[Jbub]

As I understand it, "diverging" will always be the curved leg of a turnout, so it's not as ambiguous to me as perhaps others (except in the case of wyes). But "closed" and "thrown" make zero sense to me. Perhaps leave the panel blank, and supply a sheet of stickers with various terms, like "straight," "left," "right," etc.? Or even colored dots that correspond to the LED color?

The sticker idea is exactly what I was thinking. I think as you look at a turnout, ones natural inclination is to move the toggle switch to the left if it diverges left and right if it diverges right.

[peteski]

My guess it's an extension of Digitrax's nomenclature.

Yes, and I never understood (or liked) Digitrax's nomenclature for their Ops Mode Switches.  It makes no sense to me. But I'm  no expert on prototype's lingo, so maybe those terms sre  widely used in the 1:1 scale railroading?

But the Thrown/Closed nomenclature. in my experience, sure isn't popular in the model train world (other than when someone has to ever modify those Digitrax Ops Model Switches - which is rarely done).  But who knows - maybe RPC did their research and it showed Closed/Thrown to be widely used somewhere?

Using one of the Tortoise contacts sets is useful, but it it adds wiring complexity (especially if one has few dozen switches on their layout).  Sure, it does provide positive indication of the switch points, but so does a 2-lead bi-color LED (or 2 discrete LEDs wired in reverse parallel) in series with the switch motor's wiring.  That (2-wires per machine) method also provided a positive indication of the switch point status.  When the motor is running (moving  the points) the indicator LED is dimly lit and flickers lightly (since the running current is low). When the motor stalls, the current increases and the LED comes on brightly and stops flickering.  To me that is a perfect indicator, with half of the wires required.

But the circuit board  presented here is flexible and it can be utilized for those 2-wire installs with a series connected  indicator LED.  I hope it sells well.

[DKS]

The sticker idea is exactly what I was thinking. I think as you look at a turnout, ones natural inclination is to move the toggle switch to the left if it diverges left and right if it diverges right.

Strangely, I've found some modelers who want to throw the switch in the direction of traffic, and others want to throw the switch in the direction of the switch points, which are opposite of one another. So I'm not sure if there's a "universal" solution to this. And I'd be really surprised if "Closed/Thrown" is widely used anywhere... just sayin'.

[learmoia]

This thing just seems over complicated to me.. you can accomplish the same thing with 2 LEDs wired in reverse polarity to each other in series with the switch machine.  One light for each direction on the direction  (Switch machine acts as the resistor for the LED).

~Ian

[DKS]

This thing just seems over complicated to me.. you can accomplish the same thing with 2 LEDs wired in reverse polarity to each other in series with the switch machine.  One light for each direction on the direction  (Switch machine acts as the resistor for the LED).

To much work for some folks...

[MK]

Just label them as "This Way" and "That Way".   

[learmoia]

To much work for some folks...

Yeah yeah yeah..  I wired 5 boards for 4 yards with detection and Tortoise control with position indicators... it took about a week and a half at 8 hours a day. One yard was controlled by 2 boards where either board could control the same machine and both boards gave accurate switch indication.

Power - Board 1 SW - Board 2 SW - Board 2 Lights - Board 1 Lights - Machine..

Oh yeah these were 8-10 track yards..tons of wire.. but it all works!!

(Using the SPDT switches in the machine would have been simpler for switch indication..) but we were using them for frog power.)

~Ian

[John]

showed Closed/Thrown to be widely used somewhere?

When a "switch" is closed on the railroad -- its lined for the normal route of travel .. when it's thrown -- its lined for the diverging route ..  easy peasy

[peteski]

When a "switch" is closed on the railroad -- its lined for the normal route of travel .. when it's thrown -- its lined for the diverging route ..  easy peasy

Thanks for the explanation. Again, in my several decades of model RR operations I don't recall ever using those terms. But maybe I don't hang around with really "serious" operators (even though some of them are/were 1:1 railroad engineers and dispatches). 

Your explanation does sound logical, but I still roll my eyes seeing it used to use for Digitrax Ops Mode Switches (which are usually true/false, enabled/disabled,  or active/inactive type functions).  Seems like they were trying to be cute (using terms not normally used in model railroading to describe digital setting on their command station.

[learmoia]

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Edit.. Woops wrong thread..!!!!!

[KE4NYV]

Wow!  Quite the response.  I get the feeling that people are personally angry with me over the my choice of words used on the fascia panel

First, let me say over the 20+ years I have been modeling I have heard many terms for the status of a turnout. "Closed" and "Thrown" were the most common I heard used by others, so that is essentially why I settled on them for the fascia panel.  It had nothing to do with Digitrax terminology.  I wouldn't know what that is because I am personally an NCE user

As for changing the words, I already have a production batch of panels and until those are all sold, I'm not likely to spend the money to modify or change them until so.  I hope people can appreciate that these products cost money to produce and until I sell them, it's all out of my company's pocket.  No pre-orders or crowdfunding here, wondering if you'll ever see it.  We're producing products in house and when you pay, they get shipped that day or the next (depending on how late it is).

I want to address the comments regarding this being "too complex" or "way overly complicated".  This product was simply designed to alleviate some of that.  I created this because I had customers come up to me in person at train shows and ask me for something like this.  The comments were similar:

"I'm not an electronics guy and I don't want to get into wiring up switches by hand."
"I wish there was an easier way to implement the LED indicator without having to figure out a good way to mount it."
"I want something I can just hook up and it works.  No guessing!"

Many probably do not know that we sell our own version of a solderless Tortoise wiring adapter.  We have sold hundreds.  They have been very popular.  Together with the DC Control Panel, they are a perfect match.  The wiring is pin for pin.  The only time you may have to swap two wires is based on whether the switch machine is moving in the direction you want for your panel.  Very simple two wire swap.

Here is a picture of the two together:



That is what I set out to do with this.  One thing I did not mention in my original post is an adapter to make wiring even easier. We do offer an even simpler way to wire everything up. We have been selling RJ45 to breadboard adapters for about ten years now. They were traditionally for the electronics hobbiest market, but they found their way into this market by accident. By adding one to each the DC Control Panel and the Tortoise Interface we make, you can use a standard CAT5 cable to connect the two together. Since we're dealing with low voltage, low current and simple DC (no data), the CAT5 or CAT6 work just fine.

The RJ45 adapter:



Last, I did not link to it in the original post, but I do have a demo video that I uploaded last month of the prototypes showing this in action and showing how the RJ45 adapters work. That is still can he viewed here:

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Hopefully the video can answer a few of the questions that text could not.  I'm working on a couple of videos to update this.  One will be a better, shorter overview of the hardware using the production version, showing the fascia panel (as I did not have it in time when I made the first video).  Also, I will make short video showing the method for drilling out the 1" hole and installing the set of boards in a 1/2" plywood face.

Thanks!
Jason
www.rpc-electronics.com