Just realized that I may

Just realized that I may have reversed the color of the wires leaving the DPDT and heading to the bus and LEDs. Circuit should still be the same though.

Illuminated switches?

DPDT switches that have an internal bi-color LED for button illumination are available. Would mean all new switches on your panel but if you want simplified wiring they would do the trick.

Quite pricey if bought through traditional suppliers. Probably could find cheapies if you scour China centric sites like eBay, BuyInCoins, etc.

Example switch: http://www.mouser.com/ds/2/295/ybilluminated-309721.pdf

Another idea is to solder stranded wire leads to the LED leads. Cover with heat shrink. Then you could attach the new flexible longer leads directly to the switch and what you call the bus (which is actually a terminal block in your diagram). LEDs with leads already attached are available but why bother with the extra expense when soldering your own is so easy and way cheaper.

Oops

Oops ignore

Test em

The cathode of the LEDs is marked by a flat side, a short wire, or both. Unfortunately, the the colors you get are not the same for every brand and part number. (You can figure it out from real data sheets, but not from the generic ones many catalogs post.) They should be the same for the entire batch, though. You can test how one will light up with a battery and resistor. Then you can wire them in a predictable way. I suggest you put a bit of colored heat shrink on the cathode lead--that will make it easier to keep track of the orientation.

You can wire the power any way that is convenient. When two wires are connected, all points on them are the same point.

pqe

You can have fewer wires to

You can have fewer wires to each toggle by adding a second power supply. Three instead of four wires may cause less clutter. Our club has used this system for 10 + years with no problem. I hope the diagram is understandable. I deliberately show DPDT toggles, which apparently you have; just use them as SPDT and you don't have to remove the reversing wires.

Positive bus in the panel comes from one power supply, negative bus from the other. The other two poles of the power supplies go to the same common return that goes out to the switch motors. It isn't in the panel at all.

 I have no help for how red and green LEDs depend on polarity. But what we do is simple. See in your thread Alan's tip to add flexible wire to the LEDs. With all connections made except center terminal of the toggle switch, and the power live, connect one lead of the LED pair to the wire that goes to the Tortoise. Then touch the other lead to the RED or BLACK pole of the DPDT. This shows which hole in the panel to put each LED, and you can twist the toggle to the alignment you want before you solder the LED lead to the toggle.

Hope some or all of this helps.

DrJolS

Much Simpler

DrJoIS,

That appears much simpler and still relatively easy to understand. I'll have to take a look under the layout and see if it its worth making any changes. I was inspired by the wiring going on at the JL&T and spent a long weekend cleaning up my wiring before reading this post. I'm 'wired out' for now. As I complete new sections of the layout I may be motivated to go that route.

How would you control a turnout from multiple locations using this wiring? Connect another SPDT switch to the power bus, connected to LEDs, like above, but make the same connection to the terminal block from the new LEDs that goes to point 1 on the tortoise that you want to control from two locations?

Alan,

I'll take your suggestion on wiring as well.

Different approach

As soon as multiple control points enter the equation the mechanical switch idea starts to become wiring intensive. Under your layout will quickly look like a telephone exchange.

A better solution for multiple control points is a latching relay at the Tortoise which can be triggered by an unlimited number of momentary contact switches requiring only a single wire from any switch. For full details read here:

http://www.lkorailroad.com/tortoise-printed-circuit-boards/

My army of relay equipped Tortoises prior to beginning installation. On the layout most of them can be controlled from multiple panels.

Typical relay equipped Tortoise installation:

Or

Just pick up some controls from Berrett Hill Shops, one of MHR's sponsors. They handle controlling switches from multiple locations with one board.

Different strokes for different folks

Harkens back to the scratch build or RTR discussions.

The Barrett Hill Shops product is a slick solution if you are in the RTR camp.

Sort of

You may be a scratch builder but I see little green boxes hanging from all over underneath your layout. You went RTR too.  

You scratch build some things and try not to reinvent the wheel with others.

...

Guilty as charged. Although not so much as reinventing the wheel as is a matter of practicality.

AC Power

If the light colors are wrong then turn the switch 180 degrees.

Regards, John

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. <> Harry S Truman

LED graphic

In the above graphic depicting the bi-polar LED, they are not wired the way they are shown in the diagram. In this way shown, neither color would illuminate under any configuration. Bi-Polar LED'S are wired internally in parallel not in series as shown. So effectively each leg is both anode and cathode or + and -. When the polarity is reversed, one will be forward biased and the other reversed biased. Forward biased conducts and illuminates and reversed bias blocks current flow, thus not lighting.

* After further review of the original post I believe I may have misread it and it is using "two" bi-polar LED's in which case back to back would work as shown....

LED

After posting my description of the bi-polar LED, another post popped up showing the correct graphic as i explained entitled "AC power"

Can I do this at the bus bar

while somewhat excessive, the layouts i've worked on wire everything to barrier strips inside the panel.   everything on the panel has long wired back to the strips.   rewiring to correct mistakes is easier