# Control Panel for yard



## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

My son is into HO, (I'm not,lol,) and he wanted a small yard to add on to his layout. As a belated Christmas present, I built him a small yard, wired, with a control panel. I have to change 1 location of a toggle switch but otherwise, this is about done. Just wire up the controls and let it go to his house.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

a few more pix.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

sorry to say, but this does not look like very elegant solution. if it fits your needs i guess it all that matters, but i would approach this in completley different way.

are those DPDT's control power to isolated segments? if so then indication of power present on rails is an order - old charger from cellphone (in case there is no other accessory power availablr) some LEDs + resisitors is all it takes. i would ditch those ugly "on-off" shields (if anyone wants them i have dozens of "on-off and "on-off-on", yours free)
i count 8 turnouts. money spent on those outlandish looking atlas controllers could have went towards proper multi-channel CDU (Capacitor discharge unit), like this one (if you insist on not making your own). it is a DCC decoder, but will operate perfectly without, with about 10$ per channel it is quite reasonably priced. with 13 inputs you can have control over each turnout + 5 more for commonly used routes controlled by neat button on panel. indication of turnout state can also be usefull

how will the control panel going to be mounted?


of course feel free to disregard, again if you happy its all that matters. but if you spend the effort you might as well do it right 

good luck, post progress.


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## breakerboy (Jan 17, 2012)

Nice work flyer! Hope your not shipping that sucker to your boy...


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

*Moved: Critique and how well we taking it*



breakerboy said:


> Nice work flyer! Hope your not shipping that sucker to your boy...


Thank you... He has a 4x8 layout started, and I'm doing this part here at home. He's only about 25 miles away, and when I get this all powered up and functional, he's coming over with my 2 grandsons and I'll show him how it all operates. The last time all my grandson came over, one poor little guy wet his pants 3 times he was so excited.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

tankist said:


> sorry to say, but this does not look like very elegant solution. if it fits your needs i guess it all that matters, but i would approach this in completley different way.
> 
> are those DPDT's control power to isolated segments? if so then indication of power present on rails is an order - old charger from cellphone (in case there is no other accessory power availablr) some LEDs + resisitors is all it takes. i would ditch those ugly "on-off" shields (if anyone wants them i have dozens of "on-off and "on-off-on", yours free)
> i count 8 turnouts. money spent on those outlandish looking atlas controllers could have went towards proper multi-channel CDU (Capacitor discharge unit), like this one (if you insist on not making your own). it is a DCC decoder, but will operate perfectly without, with about 10$ per channel it is quite reasonably priced. with 13 inputs you can have control over each turnout + 5 more for commonly used routes controlled by neat button on panel. indication of turnout state can also be usefull
> ...


Bear in mind this is my first shot at doing anything in HO. I find what I did will function perfectly for my son/grandsons. Thanks for your comments.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

"_will function perfectly for my son/grandsons._" is it perfect then? panel is panel no matter the scale (your yard i have almost no comments about). if you don't intend to do anything fancy it still can be done in clean manner. here is a picture of the simplies one, nothing more then sheet of paper, some plywood and toggles. on yours i see bunch of holes purpose of which is unclear for example. it is also not as compact as it could be, hence also asked how will it be mounted, hinting that with those dimensions it probably will get very intrusive. as i see it lots of room for improvement.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

OK,OK, can we get back to trains again!?


Edit, By the way flyernut, what are all the extra holes for in the panel?


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Exellent job on the yard and the control board!
He not all of us HO guys are overly wrapped up into super perfection!
Tankist hates the fact that I use Tortiose Switch Machines! He thinks they are a waste of money, I love the fact that on a manual control board I can have compleate control and feed back all with a single pole switch and a couple of LED's. Point being I have set up a ton of control boards over the years and yes if it works for you or your son and your grandkids that is all that matters!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

to not sidetrack from flyernuts project i moved the side discussion here:
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=10352


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

NIMT said:


> Tankist hates the fact that I use Tortiose Switch Machines! He thinks they are a waste of money,


indeed i do not find the cost of tortoises to justify what they provide. "hate" however is incorrect word here. replace by "Tankist doesn't understand the rationale"


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## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

tankist said:


> indeed i do not find the cost of tortoises to justify what they provide. "hate" however is incorrect word here. replace by "Tankist doesn't understand the rationale"


Is that the same as NIMT dosen't understand why if you think that servos are so great why do you have dual coil switch machines?


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

big ed said:


> OK,OK, can we get back to trains again!?
> 
> 
> Edit, By the way flyernut, what are all the extra holes for in the panel?


The extra holes are for the wiring. Like I said, this is just for my son and grandsons to play around with. It doesn't have to be a "Buck Rogers" thing of beauty.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

flyernut said:


> The extra holes are for the wiring. Like I said, this is just for my son and grandsons to play around with. It doesn't have to be a "Buck Rogers" thing of beauty.


I don't think it looks bad.....but I am not the expert.
I was wondering about the holes myself.


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

big ed said:


> I don't think it looks bad.....but I am not the expert.
> I was wondering about the holes myself.


I'm not an expert myself by any means. It's just something to putz around with, making my boys,(son,grandsons,) happy. They'll get a kick out of pressing buttons and throwing levers.If my son wants to improve on it, he can do that. It's just something to make him think a little. I know all the boys will like it, and that's the most important thing; to get/keep them in the hobby. They don't need to be nuclear scientists to operate it. Or to better phrase it, don't think so hard to make yourself stupid.


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

NIMT said:


> Is that the same as NIMT dosen't understand why if you think that servos are so great why do you have dual coil switch machines?


no , not really same. regardless of what i use the original conversation was about slow motion machines. just because i use coils at the moment (wanted to have the option of manual override) doesn't mean that i can not have ideas about other devices "_if i to start over today_"


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

That is very close to how I rebuilt my control panels. The one difference I made was to align the Atlas switch with the turnout. I.E. If the line ran horizontally as yours appear to and switch to an upper and lower branch I would turn the switch 90 degrees. That way the 'lever' will be pushed in the direction to make the train go. Also by leaving the lever in that position it indicates the direction of the points at that time, eliminating the need for lights. This method I found made it more user friendly but less 'eye friendly'.


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## Joe Fullager (Jan 22, 2012)

tkruger said:


> That is very close to how I rebuilt my control panels. The one difference I made was to align the Atlas switch with the turnout. I.E. If the line ran horizontally as yours appear to and switch to an upper and lower branch I would turn the switch 90 degrees. * That way the 'lever' will be pushed in the direction to make the train go. Also by leaving the lever in that position it indicates the direction of the points at that time,* eliminating the need for lights. This method I found made it more user friendly but less 'eye friendly'.


I like this idea, cheers!


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## flyernut (Oct 31, 2010)

Thanks for the comments.


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