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Scott, A good question to ask. Assuming you will have two lines/loops, I recomend one controller on each loop, with a pair (or more) or switches connecting the two loops. With this sort of layout you can move your trains between loops easily. It (...) (26 years ago, 24-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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Thanks, Ben. I am using Matt D. Bates excellent Track designer program (I did it on AutoCad for a long time, without much success!), and I am trying to see if I can get just a simple switch between the two lines so that the current doesn't short (...) (26 years ago, 24-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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(...) Track Designer will not detect shorts created by attaching more than one controller. It only detects shorts caused by reversing loops. However, that is a feature that I would eventually like to add to version 3, so that you can tell TD where (...) (26 years ago, 24-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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That sounds great Matt, in regards to TD3! I guess my biggest concern involving the train situation is I would like to have one switch rail between two lines or different tracks, each having its own controller. I have a few questions regarding this (...) (26 years ago, 24-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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All, see my comments below prefixed with 'ben>>' (...) ben>> Lego trains seem pretty blow up proof, but I'll keep trying. If I find a way to blow them up using only Lego pieces, I'll let you know. (...) ben>> Yes. Simply be careful not to cause a (...) (26 years ago, 25-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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Ben, Thanks Ben. I will try it out tonight. In question 2, I was just saying if I ran one train around track#1, and had the switch going to track#2 (and not having the controller on, all the trains would be switched off), would it cause a problem, (...) (26 years ago, 25-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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On this topic, has anyone ever tried cutting a bit out of the metal in one of the rails (just on one side) to stop a reversing loop from causing a short? I've been wondering about doing that, and wondering how difficult it is. Simon (URL)Track (...) (26 years ago, 25-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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(...) I suspect the short would happen even if the two controllers have the same polarity, but are set to different speeds. I'm guessing it's the voltage they put out which increases as you up the speed. If that's the case and you have the (...) (26 years ago, 25-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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(...) Yes. I have. In fact, I have a reverse loop to reverse loop layout. Its not hard at all. All you have to do is cut the rails (both of them) in 2 pieces of track for each reversing loop. Then, you have a choice: LEGO or Radio Shack... You need (...) (26 years ago, 26-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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Cut is such an ugly word...a small piece of electrical tape will open (disconnect) the circuit. However, if the wheels are on opposite sides of the cut/tape then a short occurs again. I think you need two cuts/tapes to keep the circuit open. Chris (...) (26 years ago, 27-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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To all, I finished the track design last night, (I will post some pictures on my webpage soon), and decided against doing both lines at the same time connected. I am willing to explore the possibility in the future, however. Now, for the monorail (...) (26 years ago, 28-Feb-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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I finally got round to having a play with my controllers and my multimeter. PUTTING TWO CONTROLLERS ON THE SAME TRACK ---...--- Firstly, apologies to Ben, who suggested if you connect two controllers to the same track, then they'd short only if the (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Railroad Dilemma
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How have you got this working? I sat down and had a long think about it last night, and played checked out my points with a multimeter to see which circuits get broken when you move the points, and I can see that you need to cut the rail on both (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) I'm not sure I agree that the voltage is variable. People have reported (via oscilloscope analysis) that it's pulse width modulated 9V instead. This will read on an analog meter like a low voltage, because it's taking the average across time. (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) If you have any URL's where people have reported on this, I'd be interested. (...) Yep - it was ohmmeter across unpowered moter. I did think about directly measuring the current with the motor running, but my multimeter has a maximum current (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) So would I, because it's not true! As I've said this many times, it's plain and simple variable DC voltage with 6 steps. Look at... (URL) (...) Also not true. The resistance of the motor is not enough to determine the current it will draw (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) That is because there is a diode to protect from reverse voltage and the voltage drop is about 0.3V (...) The maximum current is about 0.7A MAXIMUM ( maximum voltage and whell not turning) with one controller (...) the internal resistance will (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) it on a scope. If we have a PWM voltage with a 50% duty cycle and 10 millisecond period An analog voltmeter will report the average voltage of 4.5, not 5 milliseconds DC 9V and 5 milliseconds DC 0V because it does not have the timescale (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) interested. (...) True, I used a voltmeter to generate the data on that page, but I didn't claim anywhere on my page or previous posts that that was what I used to prove it is not PWM. Proof is obtained by opening the controller, getting the (...) (26 years ago, 8-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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| | Re: Electrical Things (was: Railroad Dilemma)
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(...) But (pedant mode on) your wording in the post above does make that implication. ;-) (...) No fair. :-) That's a white box test. Much more fun to drag out a scope. OK, I give. (26 years ago, 9-Mar-99, to lugnet.trains)
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