09-01-2009, 10:35 PM
Thanks Steve. 
To be honest, I wouldn't know how half this stuff worked if it wasn't for instructions. LOL!!!
I'm pretty stoked after this evenings efforts. I managed to get the yard ladder glued down to the road bed last night (Yes, I used PL Construction Adhesive, go big or go home I always say... :? ) Heh, I figure if push comes to shove, I'll do what I though about doing and cut out the trackwork I want to keep. In the meantime this sucka is going NO WHERE!
Ok. So after dinner I went straight to work. It started off kinda of slow, then snowballed. I dropped about a dozen or so feeders, mounted the Switch 8 and the Hex Frog Juicer to the layout and started hooking it all up. I managed to get two Torts installed as well.
CP # 8416 was the first engine I ever purchased. She was the motivation that got me going, prompted construction on my last layout and has never let me down. So she was brought out of storage and had the honor of testing out the new trackwork and giving the electronics a test.
The guts. Switch machines # 4 and # 3 as designated by the Switch 8 decoder on the left. The HFJ is the one with all the pretty lights on the right.
![[Image: DSC03179.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03179.jpg)
Starting at the points # 8416 makes her way into T.O. # 4.
![[Image: DSC03180.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03180.jpg)
Notice the red LED at the bottom left corner. It will stay red as the loco crosses the frog on the diverging route, no polarity change required.
![[Image: DSC03187.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03187.jpg)
![[Image: DSC03182.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03182.jpg)
Back up the loco and throw the points and crawl through again.
![[Image: DSC03183.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03183.jpg)
The micro switch automatically senses a short and flips the polarity within a micro second. The loco does not stall, hiccup, or cause a short. In fact you don't even know the HFJ is doing its job. Which I suppose is the point.
![[Image: DSC03184.jpg]](http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee118/tetters73/DSC03184.jpg)
If you go back and look at the first photo this set up requires no use of the internal SPDT switches in the Torts and simplifies the wiring big time. In doing these short manuevers I backed onto the frog for T.O. # 3 and noticed nothing out of sorts either. Awesome.
I'm happy with the HFJ and happy I'm finally getting somewhere again!
To be honest, I wouldn't know how half this stuff worked if it wasn't for instructions. LOL!!! I'm pretty stoked after this evenings efforts. I managed to get the yard ladder glued down to the road bed last night (Yes, I used PL Construction Adhesive, go big or go home I always say... :? ) Heh, I figure if push comes to shove, I'll do what I though about doing and cut out the trackwork I want to keep. In the meantime this sucka is going NO WHERE!
Ok. So after dinner I went straight to work. It started off kinda of slow, then snowballed. I dropped about a dozen or so feeders, mounted the Switch 8 and the Hex Frog Juicer to the layout and started hooking it all up. I managed to get two Torts installed as well.
CP # 8416 was the first engine I ever purchased. She was the motivation that got me going, prompted construction on my last layout and has never let me down. So she was brought out of storage and had the honor of testing out the new trackwork and giving the electronics a test.
The guts. Switch machines # 4 and # 3 as designated by the Switch 8 decoder on the left. The HFJ is the one with all the pretty lights on the right.
Starting at the points # 8416 makes her way into T.O. # 4.
Notice the red LED at the bottom left corner. It will stay red as the loco crosses the frog on the diverging route, no polarity change required.
Back up the loco and throw the points and crawl through again.
The micro switch automatically senses a short and flips the polarity within a micro second. The loco does not stall, hiccup, or cause a short. In fact you don't even know the HFJ is doing its job. Which I suppose is the point.
If you go back and look at the first photo this set up requires no use of the internal SPDT switches in the Torts and simplifies the wiring big time. In doing these short manuevers I backed onto the frog for T.O. # 3 and noticed nothing out of sorts either. Awesome.
I'm happy with the HFJ and happy I'm finally getting somewhere again!