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Author Topic: 70 turnouts  (Read 1337 times)

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rva1945

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70 turnouts
« on: October 10, 2017, 08:26:37 PM »
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Hi everybody!

How can I control 70 turnouts? I have the 70 servos but I guess there are limitations with the Arduino boards, though I know some servo driver boards can be hooked (at least that's the theory!)

Is there any working example?

Or, what do they use to control so many turnouts?

Thanks!
Robert
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peteski

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2017, 09:22:33 PM »
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Quote from: rva1945 on October 10, 2017, 08:26:37 PM
Hi everybody!

How can I control 70 turnouts?

One at a time, one at a time!  :D

But seriously, you need to expand on what you want to do. What is your goal? Do you want a fully automated layout where the trains and their routes are all fully computer controlled? Or do you want to have control panels for different areas of the layouts (like yards or towns) and have the turnouts controlled from the panel by the operators running their trains?  Or maybe by the dispatcher?
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C855B

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2017, 09:39:12 PM »
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I use the Tam Valley Depot QuadLN. It can control 4 or 8 servos depending on how you use the expansion port. For instance, I use the expansion port to control frog power relays, so that means four servos per board.

Not as nearly as cheap per turnout as the Arduino, but it doesn't have the limitations.
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rva1945

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2017, 10:16:41 PM »
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I need to manually control de turnouts by switches on a layout map, just that.
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ednadolski

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2017, 10:17:50 PM »
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Since you mentioned Arduinos, this puppy will give you 128 GPIO lines over the I2C:

https://www.cnx-software.com/2016/03/30/digio-128-board-adds-128-gpios-to-your-development-board/

I've bought one to use with my home-brew detection/signalling system, but haven't had the chance to start playing with it yet.

Ed
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rva1945

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2017, 10:30:20 PM »
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According to what I can see in the pictures, you can connect using pairs of pins, i.e., LEDS, but servos nee 3 pins.

Can you control 128 servos with this one?
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Mark W

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Re: 70 turnouts
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2017, 12:15:27 AM »
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Two of the three wires are positive and ground, you can tie those all together.  Signal is the only wire that requires a 'pin' from the board, but it can't be just any pin, it needs to be PMW.   I don't think shift register pin expansion would work. 

A few of these boards might help though:
https://www.adafruit.com/product/815
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