Using frog juicers

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Richard
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Using frog juicers

#1

Post by Richard »

Having had various problems with the delicate nature of the PL13 accessory switches and their attaching to the underside of PL10 point motors, I thought that I would try frog juicers with various turnouts including a single and a double slips and an asymmetric three way turnout. Hopefully these would be more reliable and simplify the wiring while putting less strain on the underside of the turnouts by eliminating the PL13. Not such luck. They seem fine with simple turnouts, but I’ve obviously done something wrong with the slips and three way. As a result I’ve got dead frogs and can’t achieve smooth running across various turnouts. Don’t they just attached to the bus and the frog? And can I use two on the asymmetric turnout as two of the frogs are wired together anyway?
Thanks.

MOD Note: Topic moved to the DCC section where it may attract more replies and views.
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Steve M
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Re: Using frog juicers

#2

Post by Steve M »

Silly question, you are DCC aren’t you?
Two wires to the bus, one wire to the frog.
"Not very stable, but incredibly versatile." ;)
Richard
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Re: Using frog juicers

#3

Post by Richard »

Yes, it’s DCC
And yes that’s what I’ve done.
There’s no obvious + or - on the juicers so it presumably doesn’t matter which way round they’re connected.
RFS
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Re: Using frog juicers

#4

Post by RFS »

On the 3-way have you added bonding wires on the 3 rails on each side? Even with working frog switching you can still get dead spots as the blades still only depend on contact with the stock rail.

And on the plain turnouts have you bonded the closure rail to the stock rail after isolating the frog? Again you can get dead spots here too.
Robert Smith
Richard
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Re: Using frog juicers

#5

Post by Richard »

I’ve not modified the three way. I haven’t seen any recommendation to do so, but I suppose it’s really pretty obvious in hindsight. I’ve done the recommended modification on the plain turnouts.
Richard
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Re: Using frog juicers

#6

Post by Richard »

Now found two YouTube videos showing how the three ways should be modified.
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