Thursday 24 September 2009

Turntable - progress

As the layout is run by DCC then it makes sense to have the turntable controlled in the same way.
I have a ZTC255 chip spare that has a 2Amp capacity so that is ample for running the turntable.

First off, though, I did a lash up to make sure everything worked. Remembering the mantra - red and black to the track, orange and grey go away, I soldered up the motor leads to the orange and grey (remembering to put some heat shrink over the wires first. Then I connected the red and black to some wander leads to get the power in. As you can see from the video, it worked!

The chip is addressed as 99 to keep it clear from the loco chips I have running.




Needless to say, there is lots that still needs doing - like setting the turntable into the baseboard etc. but, hey , this is more fun!

Turntable - first steps

I have got a Walthers Turntable and their motorising unit. Making the turntable was easy and fitting the parts for both motorising and powering the track were also easy. What has not been easy is fitting the track. I decided to buy two Kadee track gauges but bougth them from a guy on EBay in the US. I have had some great results buying HO MR stuff on EBay.com but this time, I have waited two weeks and received nothing - :-(

Anyway, here is the turntable on its first test.



Hopefully when my track gauges come, I can fit the track to the platform..

Here is a picture of it in-situ, but not finally fitted yet. I first have to wire it for DCC so that will come in the next Blog posting.















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