Model Railway Forum

A bit of advice please. I am wiring insulfrog points for DCC. I have put a dropper on each rail side at the heel end of the points, about three sleepers along from the rail ends. My last two points sit over baseboard supports where I would normally add droppers. Can I just move the droppers further up the rails I normally solder to? Again, the droppers would be fixed to the outer rails, not the frog rails. Sorry if this is a silly question but some reassurance would be much appreciated from members far more experienced than myself.

Hi
Yes, you can solder dropper wires to anywhere along the points outer stock rails. Its all one rail on each side

Thank you Brian - much appreciated.

Hi Brian or anyone else, I fully understand stock rails and drop wires. I am currently using Peco ngauge set-track 80 insulfrog points, with gaugemaster seep motors and DCCconcents ADS-8sx decoder. 2 questions
1) Some people suggest using isolator fishplates on the 2 non stock point rails to avoid potential shorting, following by drop wires to BUS wire - is this something you would suggest
2) Main question surrounds the frog wire and where on the underside of the point the wire should be connected, If anyone could send me a screenshot of the underside of a point and a note of where the wire should be connected.
Thanks for any suggestions

dougieb1903 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 5:41 pm Hi Brian or anyone else, I fully understand stock rails and drop wires. I am currently using Peco ngauge set-track 80 insulfrog points, with gaugemaster seep motors and DCCconcents ADS-8sx decoder. 2 questions
1) Some people suggest using isolator fishplates on the 2 non stock point rails to avoid potential shorting, following by drop wires to BUS wire - is this something you would suggest
2) Main question surrounds the frog wire and where on the underside of the point the wire should be connected, If anyone could send me a screenshot of the underside of a point and a note of where the wire should be connected.
Thanks for any suggestions

Hi
1) IRJs on Insulated frog points are not normally needed. They can be fitted if shorts occur due to metal wheels touching the inside of the open switch rail, but this isn't normally needed if the Back to Back is set correctly on all stock items. N gauge code 80 points have a very wide switch rail opening and its extremely rare for these to suffer shorting!

2) There are no frog wire on Insulated frog points! They are not needed. Frog wires are only found on Electrofrog points and Unifrog points and then it connects to the Common terminal on a change over switch. This can be a point motor operated Single pole double throw switch or a micro switch operated by the points moving Tie Bar or for the DCC user a Frog Juice but only for the DCC user. However, the AD-S n SX have a connection for frog wires where these are used.

Hi Brian, many thanks for your prompt reply which was really helpful. In essence then the 3 frog terminals on the decoder have nothing connected then for my points, if I understand you right ?

dougieb1903 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 12, 2023 7:21 pm Hi Brian, many thanks for your prompt reply which was really helpful. In essence then the 3 frog terminals on the decoder have nothing connected then for my points, if I understand you right ?

That is correct for use with Insulated Frog points.

What am I doing wrong ?? I’m fairly new to the electrical side of layouts and in particular points wiring. I'm using a DCCconcepts Solenoid Decoder (ADS-8sx), which has terminal markings L, C & R. Despite the diagrams I don’t know which is positive, negative, common. I’m using a mixture of Gaugemaster PM1 switched point motors and PM2 non switched for my n-gauge railway. My points are Peco Insulfrog setrack (ST5 & ST6). The power supply I'm using is 12v DC 2A. I'm also using manual MTS - 1 switches, to give me the flexibility of manual switching. Somewhere along the lines my wiring seems to be flawed and I'm going round in circles. Brian confirmed that as I'm using insulfrog points I can leave the frog terminals unconnected. The DCCconcepts instructions and the Gaugemaster seep motor instructions seem to contradict each other in my mind. Can anyone provide me with a really simple wiring solution / diagram. Also is power supply I’m using sufficient and am I using the correct switches. Any help is appreciated.

"L", "C" & "R" are Left, Common and Right.
Wire your Seep PM x points as.... Seep pad "A" to L, pad "B" to R and pad "C" to C.
If the point operates the wrong way from that needed, swap around on the decoder the wires on L and R. Leaving C alone.

12v DC is about the lowest voltage to be used, but should work OK as each output on the ADS has its own CDU, rather than one shared between all outputs. Switch or push button should be of the momentary type. That is they do not remain in the On position when the switch is released, they return to their Off position. PB should be press for On release Off.

Thanks again Brian for your help, appreciated