Tortoise Wiring Question

[sschnabl]

I feel as if I should know the answer to this, but...  I'm in the process of laying and wiring my track.  I've seen all the diagrams for wiring up a tortoise, and understand that pads 1 and 8 go to the DPDT switch.  Pads 2 and 3 connect to the rail bus, and Pad 4 goes to the frog.  I am leaving pads 5, 6, and 7 alone.  Anyway, my question is this:  Does the orientation of the tortoise necessitate switching any of the wires around?  Some of my tortoises have the actuating arm facing the frog, and some are facing away from the frog (for various reasons).  I would assume 1 and 8 would need to be switched?  What about 2 and 3?

Thanks,

Scott

[GaryHinshaw]

You can switch the power leads (1,8) as necessary to get the direction of throw you want for a given DPDT switch position.  For the track power to frog leads, you just need to make sure the appropriate polarity is getting to the frog for a given switch position.  It's fine to swap leads 2 and 3 if the frog polarity is backwards.  Hope this makes sense.

[sschnabl]

Thank you.  It does make sense.

[John]

You can always use the other set of contacts for lineside signals, sensor connections, etc

[nickelplate759]

You are probably already doing this, but do check polarity from the frog to the rails when you are done, and make sure that it's correct with the switch thrown both ways.   I've gotten it backwards more than once - and also had a bad connection (dead frog) more than once.     

[Ed Kapuscinski]

If you're feeling a bit uncertain, I'd like to recommend picking up some SNAPS from Acculites:
http://acculites.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=99

They're not cheap, but they make fixing mistakes or "learning by doing" a LOT easier.

[sschnabl]

I actually do have SNAPS - 72 of them to be exact.  I sure beats trying to solder 5 wires to each tortoise...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I actually do have SNAPS - 72 of them to be exact.  I sure beats trying to solder 5 wires to each tortoise...

Ah, great.

I 100% agree.

[Bill H]

FWIW they just changed the width of the tortoise base to fit default connectors so the acculites may no longer fit…

Kind regards,
Bill

[fire5506]

Just pull the white plastic pieces out of the connector on the snaps and they should fit the new Tortoise connector tab.

Richard Webster

FWIW they just changed the width of the tortoise base to fit default connectors so the acculites may no longer fit…

Kind regards,
Bill

[jagged ben]

I feel as if I should know the answer to this, but...  I'm in the process of laying and wiring my track.  I've seen all the diagrams for wiring up a tortoise, and understand that pads 1 and 8 go to the DPDT switch.  Pads 2 and 3 connect to the rail bus, and Pad 4 goes to the frog.  I am leaving pads 5, 6, and 7 alone.  Anyway, my question is this:  Does the orientation of the tortoise necessitate switching any of the wires around?  Some of my tortoises have the actuating arm facing the frog, and some are facing away from the frog (for various reasons).  I would assume 1 and 8 would need to be switched?  What about 2 and 3?

Thanks,

Scott

No matter which way you rotate the Tortoise, the frog wiring stays oriented to the track.  So for example, for the frog wired to pin 4, pins 2 and 3 go to the same rail bus as the stock rail on that side of the turnout.  Same if you used 5 6 and 7 for the frog.