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DCC for Walthers 90' Turntable Kit and Motor Track and electrical/DCC
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New member 6 posts jpduffy3 New member 6 posts
jpduffy3

I have a Walthers 933-3171 90' turntable kit and a Walthers 933-1050 motor for the kit, and I have been trying to find a way to control the turntable using DCC.  Has anyone tried to do this?  If so, can you point me towards some instructions on how to set it up? 

Thank you for any suggestions.
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bgfireman Active Member 94 posts
bgfireman

Video

There is a video on youtube that a guy has showing him using a dt402d throttle to control his. We have the upgrade kit for ours at the club, but not have not installed it yet. I would love to hear how yours turns out.

Alan
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dboehlke New member 15 posts
dboehlke

Ardunio and a stepper motor...

It is possible to hook up a decoder to the DC motor on the Walther's 90 foot turntable kit. Make sure your kit operates smoothly and draws less than the decoder's rating, or you will blow the decoder if the turntable hits a spot where it scrapes or gets stuck. It operates with the throttle like a locomotive and positioning is by eye. I am planning to replace my motor with a stepper motor and an Ardunio so I can try to index it. My plan would be to put a sensor on the main track and count the motor steps to each track around the pit. DCC control should be possible by adding DCC decoder code to the Ardunio program or by interfacing electrically with a commercial stationary decoder. I have been looking at the OpenDCC code. I hope to post more as I learn more about doing this. A this point it seems possible, although I will probably spent more in time than if I just bought a DCC indexed turntable, but where is the fun in that? -- Dan Boehlke

-- Dan Boehlke --
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Michael Tondee MRH Author 5,523 posts
Michael Tondee

Are we tralking the old "cheapie" TT?

Because I used to have the cheapie N scale TT by Walthers and it was bear to get working properly. One of my secrets was a little powdered graphite where plastic met plastic and rubbed as it rotated. AS far as using DCC, I took an old Digitrax decoder I had carnivored out of a HO locomotive and used it to drive the TT motor. I assigned it an address and used my throttle to control speed and direction. There was no indexing but I found that with the better slow speed control of DCC and the fact that my operating position was almost right on top of the TT that I could line the tracks by eye pretty successfully.

Michael

Michael, A.R.S. W4HIJ

 Model Rail, electronics experimenter and "mad scientist" for over 50 years.

Member of  "The Amigos" and staunch disciple of the "Wizard of Monterey"

My Pike: The Blackwater Island Logging&Mining Co.
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dboehlke New member 15 posts
dboehlke

Re: Are we talking the old "chaeapie" TT?

I am working with the old HO turntable kit, carefully built and debugged so that it doesn't rub and scrape as it goes around. It is easy to force the pit out of round and it tends to warp.

-- Dan Boehlke --
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jpduffy3 New member 6 posts
jpduffy3

Stepper motor and mini-computer

This sounds very promising.  I was in touch with William Mitchell about his recent MRR article using a servo and and Ardunio to operate a turnout to see if this might work for a TT.  He seemed to think it would, but he is on to other things and might not give too much thought to that for the time being. 

I have started to look at using a Raspberry Pi or some of the Arduino alternatives with a servo or stepper motor, but I have not gotten too far with it.  I still have to master the technolgy before I can make much progress. 

I would like to find a group of colleagues who might be interested in collaborating on using this technology as I think it is the answer to TT control at a reasonable price. 
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jpduffy3 New member 6 posts
jpduffy3

Using a micro computer and a stepper motor...

I know what your mean about spending a lot of time.  There is a great deal of information on the web about Arduino (and equivalent), stepper motors, and stepper controllers and indexers.  The problem I have is trying to figure out what is relevant to the problem we are trying to solve. 

I think you are on the right track, however.  If you make any progress, perhaps you can post some pointers for the rest of us. 
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