# twin solenoid switch machines



## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

do these have to be wired on there own. 
or can they have a common ground and have one hot feed to 4 buttons then one wire off each side of the solenoid to the button (red/green)

hope i explained it right.


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

the reason i am asking is that i picked up a double cross over that was wired up.
and the solenoids through with the buttons until i hook up the turnouts to them. 
then they do not through. they dont even hum.



unless solenoids go bad when under strain?

i have found out that if the AC out put is 15 VAC it will not through the atlas machines.
i had to hook up that bad MRC power pack to the ACC to get the machines to through.
but it does not do that on this item.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I am not sure what you are asking. I have a double crossover with four switch moters that all run off of the same switch. It is all Atlas, and there are a lot of years on thm.

hope this helped.


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

these are silvine twin solenoids. like the tenshodo ones.




all four throw at the same time? 
so i guess they can be wired off a common grd.


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

That is the way that i have mine.


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## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I wire all of my solenoid switch machines to the same ground throughout the layout. To help protect my switch machines and give them more power when throwing the switch I use a capacitor. Peco makes one for this purpose. What it does is stores a charge and releases it all at once when a switch (or set of switches wired together) is selected. It will not recharge until the outgoing circuit is closed again. For this reason you cannot fry a machine by holding a switch open or shorting one out. Also since a capacitor is used a cheep kit transformer can be used to power the switches. The capacitor recharges to the same point regardless of what is used to charge it. The only difference is the rate at witch it re-charges.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Wingnut163

A double crossover has 4 sets of twin coil turnout motors.

The common on all 4 should be wired together and
connected to the power source common.
Not familiar with what you have but usually common is a center terminal.

You then have a choice...

1. A green button that throws all 4 turnouts to STRAIGHT THROUGH.
and a red button that throws all 4 turnouts to CROSSOVER.

To wire this: Connect ALL 4 Straight terminals together and 
connect that through a green panel button.

Connect ALL 4 Crossover terminals together and
connect that through a red panel button.

Thus: When you push the green button all 4 turnouts are set
for straight through traffic on both tracks.

When you push the red button all 4 turnouts are set
for any traffic to move from one track to the other in
either direction.

2. A more complex wiring scheme that would require a button for
straight and a button for crossover for each track.

I would go for the simple all four throw at the same time...but as others
have warned...do it through a capacitor discharge circuit. My printer's
scanner does not work or I'd send you a printed circuit of a few
small parts from Radio shack. I feel certain that GunrunnerJohn can
post a circuit for you. It should power all of your layout turnouts.

My Peco twin coil motors seem to work best using DC through Cap discharge.
They did not work as well with AC from power pack ACCESSORY terminals.

Hope this helps.

Don


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)

thanks.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

I'm with *tkruger*, a CD system will protect the switch coils.


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## wingnut163 (Jan 3, 2013)




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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

You think that's bad? I've been on the Internet so long that I've finally run out of Internet!!!

*Last Page of the Internet*


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