Model Railway Forum

Is it safe to use a dpdt on.off.on 6 pin switch to supply 16v to points through a momentary switch on the left 3 contacts with power on the centre pin and 12v to red and green leds through the right 3 again power on the centre pin. I am lead to believe that a 6 pin dpdt is actually 2 independent 3 pin switches with no common contact. Each common return would be to the power source used. Can or should I expect any problems.

If you are using the switch to operate solenoid point motors then you must use a non locking switch to prevent the point motors overheating and burning out.

That is what the momentary switch is for. I will select the point change via the dpdt and then hit the momentary push button to actually throw the solenoid. I just want to be sure I can use a dpdt to supply 2 different voltages one on each side without damaging the switch.

Should be perfectly ok. It wasn't exactly clear from your first post how it was intended to work.

Thank you rj

Hi
From your last post where you say the switch is a DPDT locking type, but the solenoids are then only operated by a Press to Make momentary PB per point switch (e.g. Double operation - Set DPDT switch then press its dedicated PB). Then fine to use one side of the DPDT switch for point motors and the other side for Panel indications.
Note; you should not consider using one "Master PB" for all points as then all the solenoids receive a pulse and the power will become useless.
Each side of a DPDT switch is electrically separate.

Please be aware that all the LEDs are doing is indicating the DPDT switch position! Which is fairly obvious as its toggle/lever position is one way or the other! The LEDs are not indicating the actual position of the point(s), just the switch.
Far better is to have a change-over set of contacts on the point or point motor and feed that back to the panel LEDs.

Thanks Brian. I do agree with your assessment, however the solenoids I am using do not allow for a switch to be added. My layout is pre dcc. Actually a lot of it is pre full stop.

You can usually add a low cost micro switch, either surface fitted and operated by the points moving Tie Bar or fitted underneath and the micro switch lever operated by the drive pin of the solinoid.

I was going to suggest micro switches too. Another option is a latching relay in parallel with the solenoid, though this could give false information if the points do not fully move across.