DCC turnout indicators

[db22]

I have 5 DCC turnouts in locations that I cannot  see their direction so I wanted to mount an LED on the turnouts so that I could tell, at a glance, as to which direction they were set. The DCC decoder decodes the command and actuates the solenoid so it must have knowledge of the command. It also assumes a toggle without feedback, I.E. it tells the solenoid to switch but has no feed back as to whether or not it happened. I will accept the no feedback situation but can the turnout decoder output a control signal that could be used to enable a toggle of a green or red LED to indicate that it was switched from its default position? I have seen the additional microswitches on the solenoid etc but with DCC it should be easy to utilize the "brain" of the decoder as a control line to the LED driver circuit.

[Joe Satnik]

Do the DCC turnouts have wired metal frogs?  If they do, the polarity of the powered frog would be your electrical indication of turnout direction.. 

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

[Hunt]

Read the features of the Hare and Wabbit
http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/hare-review.htm
http://www.dccspecialties.com/products/wabbit_review.htm

This what you have in mind?

Of course, when reading the info, you will realize the above products are not intended to work with Bachmann's decoder equipped turnouts.

I do not know if the Bachmann decoder in their turnout can be used or integrated with other product to do what you want for I have not seen any technical information about the decoder.

[db22]

Thanks for the replies: No they are Bachmann plastic frogs. And the Hare and Wabbit look very impressive but I'm not at that level yet so I think that I will sniff the position and enable a bi-color LED.

[Rangerover]

Thanks for the replies: No they are Bachmann plastic frogs. And the Hare and Wabbit look very impressive but I'm not at that level yet so I think that I will sniff the position and enable a bi-color LED.

I have the tortise machines and my leds on my map are connected directly to the tortise without the "hare".

You may want to check this out, you need a relay of sorts to operate the leds, if you are using the simple atlas switch machines with the push button momentary charge, it will not work the led. The atlas or bacmann switches are ac and you need dc for the leds or use a diode to change the current flow from ac to dc. Atlas has fixed the problem with switch realy leds with this relay, a bit pricey but worth it. I use 4 of these to light my turnout positions on my map. These trunouts are in mountain tunnels and i would sometimes forget and have a derailment, no more! I do have excess to the turnouts, but I hate derailments!

http://cgi.ebay.com/Atlas-200-Snap-Relay-HO-N_W0QQitemZ170218824420QQihZ007QQcategoryZ19131QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262