LED turnout indicators

[Elnovato]

I have looked everywhere and still have not been able to find exactly what I am looking for. I found a pair of LED turnout indicators I want to connect to my DC command layout (NJ Int'l is the brand of those indicators). Each indicator comes with a green light, a red light and 3 cables (common ground, red with resistor for one led and yellow with resistor for the other led). In some video someone uses a relay, but in other not. Is it enough to connect each power cabe (the resistor one) to each of the diverging rails and make the ground cable connection "move with the turnout"? Alternatively, what would be the easiest way to connect these indicators?
Thanks.

[ALCO0001]

The easiest way is not always the best way . Relays are mainly used to control high current by using low current. A friend of mine used contacts on the switch machine so when the switch machine was energized either way the lever pin would move that was holding a wire contact that made contact with a fixed wire contact at the end of the switch machines travel,He used a 12volt dc wall wort as a power source  separate from track power. The rest is wiring them in correct polarity with there resistors so your no more than 3.5 volts on average to the  leds.Hope this helps

Jack

[Doneldon]

El-

ALCO has a good idea there. Another thing you can do is use two-color LEDs. They are red or green depending on the polarity of the power to them. This allows you to put a single "bulb" on your track diagram on a control panel. Customarily, the green light would signal the turnout was set for the main line or primary line (straight whenever possible on the prototype) and red for the secondary line, usually a siding, spur or yard throat.
                                                                                                                                                                         --D

[jbrock27]

Elevated, I believe you could use an Atlas 200 Snap Relay to do what you are looking to do.  There is tons of info on the web and on YouTube on how to wire it up.  I believe Chuck Baker (type his name in) did a YouTube spot on how to wire one up to leds.

Or you could do like my son and I plan on doing and use a SPDT toggle switch to manually change the signal from red to green.  Nothing automatic about it, but it will keep us busy and give us something else to do while running the trains around.  After we change the turnout, we change the light. 
The middle prong gets the DC power (around 12v) and the red and green light wires get connected to the prongs on either side.  The ground at the light gets connected to the negative terminal on our little Bachmann old school power pack we are going to use for this.

[jward]

as a newbie you'd probably be using the standard switches with the twin coil motors. those require the use of a pushbutton  sometimes a combination slide switch/ pushbutton. as such, the switch motor only receives a shot of power when the button is pressed. more than that, and you burn up the switch motor.

your signal will require constant power. wiring it into the circuit without some way to constantly power it will result in the signal only being lit when the pushbutton is pressed.

the easiest way to power the signal is to use the atlas snap relay as somebody else mentioned. the snap relay is essentially a switch motor whose solenoid moves a set of electrical contacts instead of switchpoints. thus, it can be wired in parallel with any switch motor using the 3 terminals on the end of the relay. the contacts, there are two sets of them, are along the sides of the relay, marked a b & c. I believe the a contact is set apart from the others, and this is where you connect the power. b and c would connect directly to the signal, with the signal's common lead connected back to the power supply. note that the b and c contacts are interchangeable, and if you wire your signal wrong (green for the curved route) then you only need to swap the b and c wires to correct the problem. note also that if your signal uses led's for lights, you need to wire it in the correct polarity or it will not work.

somebody mentioned bi-colour led's, those come in two varieties, 2 lead and 3 lead. avoid the use of the 2 lead ones, which are bipolar. they are essentially two led's wired bac to back, and are used to indicate polarity. the 3 lead led's will work well for switch indicators.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear Elnovato,

Please let us know what brand and part number turnout you have.  

If it is Bachmann's and has a metal frog, I have a relatively simple circuit for your lights.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

Edit: Back to the drawing board.  Simple circuit I thought of doesn't work properly.   

[Elnovato]

Thanks all. Joe, it is the standard Bachmann NS remote turnout matching an 18" curve (44561 and 44562). The frog (if I have the correct idea of what the frog is) is plastic I believe.

[Joe Satnik]

Hi, Elnovato,

You could use a 3-pole-double-throw (3PDT On-On) switch.

Two poles would charge and discharge capacitors to drive the twin coils, the 3rd pole would light either the

green or red LED.

             / ------------------------------reverse coil
Cap1+--/     Pole A

                --------------WWW--------P.S.+
                           l     Charge
                           l     Limiting
             / --------l     Resistor
Cap2+--/    Pole B

                -------------------------------normal coil

                    /-----WWW---->l------------P.S.(-)
P.S.+--------/         Res.   Rev. LED
                      Pole C
                     ------WWW---->l-----------P.S.(-)
                              Res.  Norm. LED

P.S.(-)---------Cap1(-), Cap2(-), twin coil common

P.S. = DC power supply

Haven't figured component values out yet. 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik