Using the SRC8 to
Drive Tortoise™ with Remote Panel
The SRC8 provides a very cost effective
solution for driving Tortoise™ and remotely
displaying status. There are eight groups of outputs
for driving devices and eight groups of throw/close
inputs for turnout control and reporting.
A diagram of an application is depicted below where a
SRC8 drives up to eight tortoise and transmits feedback
via LoconNet to another SRC8. The second SRC8 is used to
drive LEDs on a panel to visibly show the turnout status.
Push buttons could be mounted on the panel as well to
control the tortoise. This scheme greatly reduces the
length of individual wires and reduces the complexity of
the wiring.
A TSA is used to provide screw terminals
for the wires connected to the SRC8. It also provides
the current limiting resistors for the LEDs used on
the panel. TSAs could be used with tortoise by
shorting out the built in resistors.
For those interested in a dispatcher panel, it is pretty
straight forward to connect JMRI via a LocoBuffer to LocoNet
and be able to monitor and control turnouts. The
optional feedback connections are shown mainly for use
with a dispatcher panel. Feedback indicates that in
fact the tortoise did move as commanded. Feedback is
not required to display turnout status on a panel.
If feedback is used the SRC8 group inputs connected to
the Tortoise™ would be programmed for switch
position reporting. Below is a diagram showing how a
Tortoise™ can be connected to the SRC8. For details
on how to program the SRC8 look at the manual located on
this page. The SRC8's output voltage
is 5 volts. Thus when driving a Tortoise™, the
tortoise moves slower than with 12 volts.
LocoNet is a registered
trademark of Digitrax, Inc.
Tortoise is a trademark of Circuitron.