New feature: Turnout linking

English General
1

Hi,

I’ve developed the turnout link feature, this will make it possible to handle mechanically or electrically coupled turnouts properly in Traintastic. e.g. the Kato Unitrack cross over’s and the double cross over are electrically coupled, each turnout has its own coils but the are electrically connected, so all turnouts will move at the same time and thus use a single hardware address.

Some example turnout arrangements:

Linked turnout arrangements
Linked turnout arrangements283×166 6.37 KB

How it works:

The primary/master turnout is configured as usual, setup interface/channel/address:

Primary/master turnout
Primary/master turnout434×362 21.5 KB

The secondary/slave turnouts are linked to the primary/master:

Secondary/slave turnout
Secondary/slave turnout434×362 11 KB

Once the Linked option is selected the Output and Feedback tabs are hidden, they no longer have a function, two new options become visible.
Link to turnout specifies the primary/master turnout it is linked to.
The Invert link option can be used to inverse the position, normally Straight maps to Straight and Right/Left to Right/Left. For some turnout arangements it might be required that that Straight maps to Right/Left in that case enable this Invert link option.

The feature is available is available in master development build #2074 and later.

Feedback is welcome :slight_smile:

Greetings,
Reinder

Traintastic Demonstration and Test layout
2

What is the benefit compared to “route selection” why not use a “Route-setting button (part of NX interlocking operation)”? Maybe I have the wrong picture of “Route-settings”

3

Hi @Goofy,

I think we’re on a different page.

This has nothing to do with route setting/selection, it it just a system so Traintastic knows that turnouts are coupled and always move together.

Kato Unitrack double crossover
Kato Unitrack double crossover523×156 26.4 KB

This Kato Unitrack double crossover has only two wires to control all four turnout, so they are all either straight or diverged. (Kato uses polarity change to control the turnout position, that’s why there are only two wires.)

Other use case is where modelers connect two turnouts to one decoder output, e.g. for a cross over.

Greetings,
Reinder

1 Like
4

I see. Then I have just a small proposal, add a small (optional) delay for the linked turnouts. (I do understand that for the Kato Unitrack double crossover this is not possible) Some electromagnetic turnout-drives, like the Peco can draw a significant amount of current, switching 4, or even more at the same time might ask for trouble. Just a thought.