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Sunday, December 8, 2019

Switch - Part 3 - DCC command of switch motor

I finally got around the DCC control of a switch motor. I use the following components:

  • ESU ECoS Command Station - link
  • Lenz LS150 - link
  • Atlas Master Generator - link
  • 2 diodes 1N4001
I chose the solution with the LS150 module because it needs a separate power supply to control the switch motors. Considering the number of switches I have, it might have been too much power taken from the main tracks to power the switches. The only downside I can see is that the Tortoise will relax at the end of throw as it is designed to be used as a stall device and the LS150 cannot keep the power on all the time. 

I followed the LS150 instruction manual and the wiring diagram is fairly easy:


And here's what it looks like in real life:


A couple of details regarding the configuration of the LS150:

  • You cannot control the pulse duration from the ECoS; it needs to be configured with the LS150 itself - see below
  • In the video, I set the pulse duration to 5 sec; I believe it is a bit too long but it cannot harm the switch motor since it expects to be powered all the time
  • The english version of the instruction manual can be found here.