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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2019 19:00:14 GMT
What was the solution to the legacy problem? Where do you get the Touch Toggles? Forrest look up Berrett Hill Trains. Owner is Kevin Hunter. Full info is on his website. We have Tortoise switch machines and had been running DCS and MTHzz all year while working on the layout. Touch Toggles worked perfectly with this combination. Legacy created a problem, I had talked to Kevin Hunter, and he felt that we could resolve it. We had a tremendous amount to do before this became critical and we finally got to the point that we were ready to address the problem this week. Rich Holden and I worked on it yesterday and discovered that, if the operator is grounded to the Touch Toggle control base, Legacy works fine. I am calling Kevin Hunter tomorrow to tell him what we found and I expect that he will know what the problem actually is in electrical engineering terms and how to best correct it. I hope to have the problem corrected and our system operating fully this week. BUT, Paula is having some surgery Wednesday AM, nothing serious, and that may take my train time for several days. As soon as I get answers, I will post them here. Meanwhile, check out the Touch Toggle system. Kevin has something specifically designed for O gauge that he has not released that he said will make using Touch Toggles even easier.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2019 20:11:20 GMT
Bill, can you expand a little more on what you mean by the operator grounded to the Touch Toggle control base? What is the operator? Thanks for sharing your solution.
Andy
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Post by Joe Saggese on Dec 10, 2019 15:04:38 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 15:30:05 GMT
That looks great Joe. I particularly like the signal stand, is that an MTH product? Is the infrared and MTH product? And, I like the collection of REA equipment. That will make a great scene.
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Post by Joe Saggese on Dec 10, 2019 15:32:37 GMT
That looks great Joe. I particularly like the signal stand, is that an MTH product? Is the infrared and MTH product? And, I like the collection of REA equipment. That will make a great scene. Thanks.....The signal light is MTH. The relay box is just that, no infrared, it's just hiding the FasTrack wire for when I want to switch to Bluetooth.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 15:35:34 GMT
That looks great Joe. I particularly like the signal stand, is that an MTH product? Is the infrared and MTH product? And, I like the collection of REA equipment. That will make a great scene. Thanks.....The signal light is MTH. The relay box is just that, no infrared, it's just hiding the FasTrack wire for when I want to switch to Bluetooth. Switch to Bluetooth. I have heard about this, but not going there anytime soon.
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Post by ptc on Dec 10, 2019 15:47:38 GMT
Nice job Joe, looks great. Nice collection of REA vehicles.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2019 18:31:46 GMT
Bill, can you expand a little more on what you mean by the operator grounded to the Touch Toggle control base? What is the operator? Thanks for sharing your solution. Andy The control base has two metal tabs on the top corners, each of which has a small hole in it. If you want to ground the base, you can do so by soldering a wire on and running the other end to ground. First we used a receptacle ground, later we connected it to a ground bar. ”Operator” is simply the person who is touching the toggle to switch it. We had a 22 gauge wire soldered to the control base and when we held it against a piece of tin foil, also making firm contact with the foil and touched the toggle at the same time, it switched with no problem. Yesterday I wet my fingers, held the bare wire, and touched the toggles. Every one switched without a problem. Our hands have oil, etc on them and do not easily make a good connection. Let me go take a couple of pictures. This is the control base. Two wires from each turnout (red and black) connect (note no soldering) by three wires to each touch toggle. A wall wart supplies the power. Additional control bases connect to the three prongs on the left side. Place your toggles where you want them. We attached with double sided tape. This is temporary. Eventually we will have a small control board, probably something like a picture frame with a track diagram and touch toggles attached to the back of the diagram. To operate the toggle with no interference, make good contact with the wire, touch the toggle, and that is it. This is a temporary solution until we figure out with Kevin the best way to solve the problem. DCS worked without a problem. Legacy did not. Another picture is of the four toggles that control the passenger yard. Our freight yard has eleven toggles. Hope that this is more understandable. Check out Berrett Hill’s website. It explains better than I do.
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Post by fabforrest on Dec 10, 2019 21:52:30 GMT
These things are very interesting, but there is no chance I would attempt to retrofit them into my layout.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2019 1:27:53 GMT
Bill, thank you for the detailed explanation. I had Touch Toggles but I was experiencing the same issues you were describing. Some switches would just go back and forth, or I would just walk past a toggle, and the switch would move. Based upon what you found, I will revisit the product.
Andy
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Post by Joe Saggese on Dec 11, 2019 2:13:09 GMT
Is there anything I can read to learn about the touch toggle? The what's and why's and what it's us d for?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2019 16:43:35 GMT
Joe look up Berrett Hill trains and you will find complete info. We are using to control turnouts and to make it much easier to construct a control board. They are very simple to use. Andy we received a ground coupler from Berrett Hill late yesterday to attach and see if it is an answer to the interference problem. Hope to get to Sunday. Attachments:
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2019 17:37:35 GMT
Bill wondering if a wrist ground strap would work. I wear one when I do phone repairs. Elastic strap with cord and alligator clip on the end. Seems like that would be a pain in the you know what - I would look for a grounding mat to stand on.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 14, 2019 9:37:26 GMT
Wrist strap would work but not willing to do that. Not sure about grounding mat. Hope that the ground coupler works; Kevin felt that it would.
If not, back on the phone.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2019 13:17:42 GMT
That’s good Bill. I’m curious to see what your results are. I am following along with great interest.
Andy
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