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Reply to "Help with Relays - Novice"

Choo Choo Charlie posted:

...

Could Rob use one rotary selector switch with 20+ contacts with one relay (if needed) at the control board in place of 20+ relays? 

He will be using only one of the 20+ whisker tracks at a time.

As stated in the original post, one objective is to eliminate the long run of 20 "thick" power cables to the control panel.  Since the layout is 1500 sq. ft. the distance from roundtable to control panel could be dozens of feet...translating into hundreds of feet of thick, heavy cabling.  The wire alone can be $50 or more!

I only spent a couple minutes but was hard pressed (unsuccessful) to find a 1P20T rotary switch.  I did find this one on eBay:

2p24t

I'm not sure I'd volunteer to be the guy soldering 20 "thick" power wires to those tiny eyelet terminals!  And while I don't think whisker tracks need a 10 Amp switch, I'd wonder what the actual Amp capability of such a rotary switch was; this eBay listing did not give any specs. 

But space-wise, if only 1 whisker is on at a time, I can see such a rotary switch driving 20 x $1 relays thereby requiring "thin" control wiring from control panel to roundtable relay modules.  I think the money saved from hundreds of feet of, say, AWG 22 vs. AWG 14/16 would pay for the relays!

I'm ignorant about how guys use roundtables, but it seems there might be situations where more than 1 whisker is on.  Since it takes hours to "fire up" a steam engine I'd think you might need to simultaneously power up the engine on-deck and the engine in-the-hole to mix trains with our national pastime. 

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  • 2p24t
Last edited by stan2004

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