Sea Board, any Automobile probe will work. If it only has a 12v bulb, it may burn out a little soon, but just move to an 18volt bulb for that same socket if/when, it happens.
You can make one out of a bulb socket & loose wire. Alligator clips, clipped on jewlers screwdrivers for temporary probes
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Originally posted by seaboardstrek:
"I have a z4000 I have one ground and common going from the powered siding to the right side. And ground and common going to the left side. I want to give each train its own throttle."
Unless things have changed, GarGraves has no connection binding the outside rails like tubular, FT, & others do. You must run wire to each side. If you haven't done this, that may be part of it.
Are you using GG turnouts now? I don't think they are wired for auto-derail the same. In fact the power from leg to leg may not be continuous anywhere.
We need to know exactly what you have where.
You need 3 fully center rail isolated, & individually switched center rail blocks to do this without using careful thought of fwd-n-rev cycles.
If you add another throttle, I would add it to #2 main b.
#1) main a- empty. #2) main b- occupied, parked #3 siding, occupied, parked.
Right now, as train B leaves the siding, the power is going up one roller leg, and down the other giving the parked train (A) power.
By dividing it into three blocks, & using a switch you can....
Shut off the A train on main b by throttle
Turn on the siding to variable A position abd use throttle A, train B leaves the siding onto main a.
Shut off main a by throttle.
Move switch to variable B for the siding power.
Turn on main b by throttle, get train A onto the siding, shut siding switch off.
Turn main a back on, main b back on & run train B.
Hope this helps. Its the free SCARM program, took less than 1 hour.
If you want this to be an automated stop, wait & go. It gets a little more complicated with adding detection, and relays (rails, ir, micr switch, etc).
Not having any portion of a full train over an isolation point, is important. As well as multiple pickups on passenger cars. They cause bridging in certain transformer combos/variables for "too long". Despite phasing you still need to know how each transformer is set up to guarantee things work well.
Every layout is different if even one thing is not know, it can foul things.
Its one of the many reasons people ask you for the same info each time you post.
Its all a mystery till you list exactly what your doing this time. Including your isolation.
List All of it, each time, like a car guy spews out cam specs, or a computer geek spits out Kb.
Better answers will come faster with it.
