Hi, Newbie here. Hopefully someone can help with a general wiring question. I've decided to expand my Fastrack layout this year and added the Activator Pack connected to a Crossing Gate accessory. When the Activator Pack is connected directly to the Crossing Gate (variable track voltage) everything works fine.
I am now trying to connect the Activator track and crossing gate to fixed voltage off of a CW-80. I'm following the directions in the manual:
1.Separate and remove the wire with the RED quick connector sleeve that is connected to the
underside of the Insulated Track section. I disconnected the RED sleeve and separated the wires.
2.Slide the RED quick connector sleeve over a connector tab underneath an outer rail,
outside of the break (on the isolated section). Connect it to the Common/Ground/U
terminal on your separate accessory power supply. There are no tabs on the underside of the Isolated Track sections. Make the connection to a regular track section outside of the break. This is where I have problems. I took the wire from above, attached the sleeve to the ground rail on a track outside of the isolated section and the other end to the 'U' connector of the Accessory screw on the CW-80. If I power on the CW-80, the train moves without any throttle.
3.Connect the other end of the Insulated Track section wire (connected under the insulated
outside rail) to a power terminal on your accessory.
4.Attach a separate wire (included with the accessory) to the remaining terminal on the
accessory. Connect it to the Power/A terminal on the separate accessory power supply.
I'm sure I'm missing something obvious but don't want to damage the train by connecting the wrong wires. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks. Those videos helped a little but I still have a question. The Crossing Gate is now wired correctly but still seems to be activated by variable voltage. The faster I run the train the better the gate moves, the slower the train the gate hardly moves. I would have thought being connected to constant voltage (on a CW-80) the gate would come completely down regardless of the train speed.
Any ideas? Thanks, Val.
I believe that if you wire the activator pack itself for constant voltage, then you may have better results. The accessory gets its power from the track, like the engine. If it has its own power source, but is still activated by the track, then it should work. Let me know how it works for you.
Troy
I'm not sure I understand. Does that mean I need to remove all pins from both ends of the Activator Track ends, power the Activator Track with the constant voltage of the CW-80 and then wire the accessory crossing gate directory to the Activator Track?
If I remove the Activator track sections from my layout, this seems to work but when I put it back into the powered layout it does not. I assuming I have to 'isolate' the Activator track sections by removing the pins at the ends???
The track should already be isolated through small slits in the track. By giving it it's own power source of constant voltage, it should work better.
I tried every which way possible and could not get it to work. When the Activator track is removed from my layout and powered from constant voltage, it worked great. As soon as I put it back into the layout with the variable voltage powered track, it would not work.
I finally phased a second transformer and it's working great now. Don't know why it wouldn't work directly off the fixed voltage of the CW-80. Anyway, thanks for the help.
Hello, I had exactly the same experience with a CW-80. On another forum I found the "solution": You must reverse the polarities so that the transformer's track red connector goes to the track outer rail, and the black goes to the center rail. Then (1) The transformer's accessory black connector is the "hot" connection to the accessory. (2) The wire from the "dead" outer rail of the insulated track section connects to the activation terminal on the accessory. (3) If the accessory has a light which is constantly on (e.g. the 145 gate man), this connects to the transformer's accessory red connector (which is electrical "ground"). ((3) Does not apply to the crossing gate which has only 2 terminals.)
The only catch is that the bell & whistle buttons are reversed, i.e. pressing "bell" blows the whistle or horn, and pressing "whistle" activates the bell.
If you try this and it doesn't work, you may have a defective CW-80 as some were manufactured defectively. Lionel will replace those (according to the forum I read). Good luck!