To All: About three weeks ago I stumbled across the following item on the Litchfield Station website. It became quickly apealing to me because I was just getting ready to power the frogs on my Tortoise's and hate soldering, especially on those little pins on the blue connectors. Anyway, I ordered some and am more than pleased with the quality of the product and it's ease of installation. The one possible drawback to some will be the cost which is $6.99 if purchased from the maker, Acculite's, although Litchfield Station is selling them for $4.95 each. The Litchfield stock # is 800-SNAPS!. I might add that this product greatly simplifies the issue with changing the power wires (terminals 2 and 3 or 7 and 8) to get the polarity to the frog correct.
I have a relatively small layout (about 20x40) and have 60 Tortoise-powered turnouts. That works out to around $300.00 for connectors. Seems like a lot. GS
Greg: Your observation has much merit. In my case my Tortoise's were wired by some good friends and only for turnout control (terminals 1 & 8). With the arrival of my sound equipped Athearn GP15-1's on the property I quickly realized the necessity to power the frogs with 3 more wire connections to the blue connector and a polarity issue to boot. During the design phase I decided that I wanted my turnouts controlled remotely by my operators from their handheld throttles. The River City Railroad currently has 32 turnouts with a projeced total of around 40 or so. For me the purchase of these was well warranted for several reasons. That's what is wonderful about this great hobby as it offers so many choices.
Greg, while the Tortoises seem to be pretty reilable, a number of the modelers here have had to replace a few, so having a stab-on connector is superior to soldered connections in that case. Additionally, the laminated metal contact is somewhat susceptible to damage from tension on wires and I have seen a number rendered useless as result of wires soldered to the connections. As Bob indicates, using terminals that are screw-based, one can install a tortoise to the bottom of the layout and then make the appropriate wire connections after installation. Power-routed frogs are a necessity when using sound and having the screw terminals simplify getting the polarity correct for the frog as well as the Tortoise motor polarity.
I personally prefer the solder on connectors. You can get these from greenway products ( see http://www.greenwayproducts.com/storeroom/Electronics/switchMachines.html ) but I believe the connectors are stocked at mouser or digikey ( I have a few. I will dig them out to verify ). From greenway, you can get these for about $3 each. Paul
The connectors Greenway sells are EDAC part number 306 008 500 102 Digikey has a nearly identical connector (EDAC part number 306 008 500 101) with a minimum order of 25 for $2.25 each. ( see: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/306-008-500-101/306-008-500-101-ND/3740169 ). According to EDAC's website, The difference between the 102 and 101 version is the 102 version has a mounting tab and the 101 does not. Paul
Since Paul has taken this discussion this far, maybe a point of further clarification may be in order. The blue connector that has been referenced has an issue in the fact that it doesn't mate perfectly with the connection strips on the Tortoise circuit board causing a possible shorting issue if not perfectly centered. The accepted work-around on this issue is to super glue an 0.80" X 0.60" plastic shim on each side of the opening of the connector. This makes the Tortoise fit very tight and I have recently began sanding the plastic strip ever so slightly to make it fit easier. I have never used Greenway (or EDAC) ones but at least one biog claims they have the same issue. There is one source whom I can't remember markets an edge connector which they claim is a perfect fit. Anyway, turning back to the original discussion, i hope that we can all agree that nothing beats soldering all connections if it is done correctly. When my Noedesha yard was originally wired, Bob Wintle wired all of the Tortoise's but only the wires to throw the turnouts (pins 1 & 8) using the blue connectors that had the white shims installed. When it became evident that the frogs need to be wired my son Rob took on the project. Being a neophyte at soldering compared to Bob it became immediately evident that we needed to find a better way, thus the use of the "SNAPS". I'm happy to report that he came over yesterday and completed wiring all of the turnouts in Neodesha taking between 10 and 15 minutes each depending if the polarity needed to be switched. Bottom line, if you are Bob Wintle, Keith Robinson, or someone like them born with a soldering iron in one hand or someone that likes to solder, then go for it. If you want the easy way out and are willing to spend the extra money "SNAPS" is definitely the way to go. Bob, Actually I was born with a screwdriver in my hand. LOL Keith
The connectors greenway sells are a perfect fit. I actually have 8 of these mounted on my Free-moN modules, and they work quite well. These are the ones manufactured by EDAC. These are similar to the connectors used by DCC specialties on the Hare accessory decoders ( which mount directly to the I did not check, but I would not be surprised if those use EDAC parts as well. The only time I have has to use shims was when I retrofitted floppy disk cables to do the job. Paul
