NTRAK Module
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WIRING & CONTROL

Here is a photo of the underside of my balsa module.

I had no difficulty wiring the module - in fact, it is much easier to drill holes through balsa for wire feeds than it is to drill through hardwood benchwork!

I did most of my wiring with the module upside down, using "hot glue" to secure wires and switch machines to the module. The module is so light it was no problem to flip it back over from time to time to check operation.

The control panel is connected to the module via three 25-core cables which plug in to the underside of the module for quick and easy dismantling.



My contol panel was constructed out of a piece of masonite board with a "picture frame" beading around the edge to make it look half professional!

Different coloured LEDs light up as the rotary switches are used to select a throttle for each track (block).

The stud/probe method is used to operate the switch machines. A diode-matrix "route control" system is used to minimise the number of studs needed. A touch of one stud at the single slip on the main line can throw up to 5 switch machines. I wired a 4700uF capacitor into my Capacitor Discharge Unit to give it enough "grunt"!


The underside of my control panel.

The panel is connected to the module via cables which simply unplug from the back of the panel. This makes it easy to disconnect the panel from the layout when I need to carry it to the workbench for alterations.

The circuit board in the bottom left hand corner is the diode-matrix I put together for "route control". The white leads run from the matrix board to the panel's studs. The colored leads running off the other side of the board are wired (via the connecting cables) to individual switch machines beneath the module.


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