switch controller

[trainman1248]

Wow. its been a while since i had to come on here and ask for help.

anyways, my switch controller is not working. so i made sure all my connection were correct before i came asking for help. they were. so i undid everything and ohm tested the points on the controller. in my test i found that im only getting power to the center pin on the 3 wire connection. however when i opened the controller to see if anything had come loose or broken to my surprise found nothing. so i ohm tested the switch on the controller and had good ohms on all contacts. so from power in to the switch that designates which way the turnout is pointing is fine but the connections from the switch to where the 3 wire cable connects is the issue. how can i fix this cause i don't want to buy new switches for my turnouts.


thanks for the help.

[jward]

you are probably better off replacing the switch controller. i am assuming that the internal wiring is a pc board like the atlas ones. there's not much you can do when a board goes bad.

[trainman1248]

yes it is a pc board. im getting a sationary decoder at some point when i get the money is there something that i can do untill then?

[jward]

you could try the old stud and probe method. what you do is, you hardwire the common connection to the power supply, that would be the center terminal on the switch controller.

the other two wires of the conductor wire are soldered to the heads of brass screws driven into the control panel. the unused terminal on your power supply is wired to a metal probe. a piece of stiff wire with the insulation peeled back will do.

to operate your switch motor, tap the end of the probe on one of the two screw heads. which one depends on which way the switch is thrown, only one screw will operate the switch motor and the other will merely cause it to buzz.

what you've just done is to make a home made version of the switch control box, the probe being the button and the screws the contact. the same rules apply for operating this system as for the controller. don't leave the probe in contact with the screws for most than a second or you will burn up the switch motor.

[trainman1248]

ok thanks ill give that a try