Cobalt DCC switch machines

After building the yard, I knew I wanted a postive throw for all the turnouts. There are plenty of ways out there, slide switch, Tortoise, caboose ground throws, and hand made springs made from wire/staples.

So after much thinking and the lack of doing a whole bunch of wiring I decided to use the new Cobalt switch machines made by DCC Concepts out of Australia.

You can see in the picture below the size is smaller than the Tortoise, they even have a provision for mounting them sideways for control of crossing gates and semaphores.

After reading up on these I realized that the wiring is super easy. Two wires from the DCC buss, and one wire from the frog,, Bam,, you have a turnout with powered frog!!! There is even more contacts to allow for control from a panel via a push buttom or toggle switch. And you can even power signals/LED's from these machines.

Programming these machines is a snap. You slide the little white switch to the left, to the "set" postion. Select the turnout number you want to control on your throttle and press the button, then once done, slide back to the right. "run" position. That is all you need to do. I use Digitrax with the DT402D. So I started by moving the little white switch to the "set" position, then I selected the Switch button on the throttle, then entered a number, then pressed either T or C. Slide the switch back to the right(run) and that is all that I did. And now I have a switch machine that I can control by using the DT402D throttle.

You are probably asking how does it know what polarity to make the frog? I asked the same thing too. I found out by using a test light on the frog and opposing rail I could check it. If it was wrong, I would just swap the wires out that go from the buss to the machine.

These machines are a snap to install,, I like them, plus it saves on all the extra wiring that you have to do with other machines. I try to make sure that when I position the machine the Thrown and Closed position are the same on the actual track switch. So if you select Throw on the 402D the turnout is aligned for the diverging route and if you select Closed, the turnout is lined for the straight route.

There are some switch machines that I am not able to rotate because of benchwork members, so I need to figure out how to change the Thrown and Closed position.

I have installed 12 so far, I plan to control these with the 402D and push buttons. Even further down the road I will use JMRI Panel Pro to control them also. I choosing to add push buttons on the fascia so you can still throw the turnouts without the main throttle. I have an idea to use a piece of square styrene next to the turnout that is numbered to match the push button on the fascia. I had also thought about fabricating something to fasten the push button next to the turnout, probably drill a hole next to the turnout. So that would keep your attention on the layout and not having to look at the fascia. Any ideas out there???

Over all I am really satisfied with there little machines from the land down under. And,,, the are cheaper than the Tortoise cousin called the SMAIL ( Slow Motion Actuator with Integrated Logic)

Wow look two blog posts in one day. I am on a roll. So hopefully I can keep going on this roll and have the layout progress quicker than it has in the past.

See ya later,

Greg