New BiPolar Capacitor-Discharge Controller

GRSJr

New Member
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica] Please check out the modern bi-polar instant charge capacitor discharge circuit. It has ZERO
time delay, requires only a small capacitor. a SPST ordinary toggle for Kato machines(DPDT for twin-coil machines), and there is no complicated electronics involved.

The circuit is fully described in the May issue of Mainline Modeler with a follow-up article
which has even more details in the current issue (June).

Several of us have been using this circuit for more than 3 years with excellent results.

In my control panel, I use Radio Shack Push-Push SPDT switches (RS 275-1555) because I like push-buttons, but SPST toggles work just as well.

The articles show a physical layout where the push-buttons are finger-spaced for good operation and compact size. This layout requires no complicated PC boards. The parts mount directly on the switches and a terminal strip (RS 274-0680) which provides the means of connecting to the switch machines.

The circuit was conceived to operate UniTrack turnouts, but it works great with twin-coil machines as well.

Check it out, Once you've used this circuit, you'll never want to go back to ordinary circuits.

Ray Stilwell
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Zman

Member
Two questions out of curiosity: what's the total output voltage and how many turnouts can it power at one time?
 

GRSJr

New Member
1. The voltage is set to match the switch-machines you're using. For example, I use 12.6 volts on my UniTrack layout and 24 volts on my O-scale layout.
The voltage is set by the power source you use.
The voltage limit on the capacitors I use is 50 volts.

2. The number of machines that can be thrown at once is unlimited since each has it's own small capacitor.

Ray Stilwell
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
I'm with Clark. I've never seen it here in any shop. If you had a link, that would be great.
 

GRSJr

New Member
If you just want to try the idea. hook up the common terminal of a SPST toggle to the + terminal of a capacitor. Hook up the negative terminal of the capacitor to a Unitrack turnout. Connect one terminal of the DPDT to a + power supply and the other to the other wire from the Unitrack turnout and the - power supply lead.. For N scale a 1000 mfd
cap will be the right size if a 12 - 14 volt supply is used. A cheap DC wall-wart will do the trick for the supply, but I've even run the ckt using the voltage from a throttle, before the speed control of course.
It takes such a small amount of power that I've thrown 5 turnouts at once and not seen a glitch in the train speed.
 
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