Hello Fellow Hi-Railer!
I need your help! I am finally at a point where I can begin purchasing electronic components for wiring Lionel 072 switches to a control panel.
I plan on controlling all my switches from the control panel by using SPDT (ON)-OFF-(ON) Momentary toggle switches and Red/Green LED indicator bulbs. I want to stay away from having to provide diodes for every LED. As a result, I came up with the following approach that I think will work (see image below).
As you can see, I would like to power the switches through a single bridge rectifier using an 18V AC source from one my ZW transformers. The rectifier converts/reduces the 18V AC to approx. 16V DC; which is perfect for the switches and their bulbs.
I'm guessing that the positive side of the DC current is connected to the switches external power plug. But.....where do I connect the negative side of the DC current (refer to the RED question mark below)? Do I connect it to the AC ground? Can the negative side of DC current coexist with an AC ground? Or maybe I don't connect it all? But wouldn't that leave an open DC circuit?
I sincerely hope someone can help!