Description

The OC32 manual 3.0 describes how to connect turnout coils to the OC32. Each turnout costs you two OC32 outputs plus 2 transistors to amplify the current. If you use a DS32, it also costs you two connections on the DS32. All in all, still a relatively affordable solution, but it can be even more efficient. This is especially interesting if you want to connect a larger number of turnouts. Turnout multiplexing saves on power electronics and wiring. To control 32 turnouts, you normally need 65 wires and 64 outputs—after all, one wire and one output per coil plus one common wire for all center connections of the double-coil drives. With multiplexing, this is reduced to 16 wires and 16 outputs. And in the case of the OC32, you can use the saved outputs for other applications. The savings grow exponentially. Up to 4 turnouts, the saving is minimal or even negative. The more turnouts, the more you save. You can create the matrix yourself with wires, add the diodes yourself, and possibly add interference suppression components. However, you can also use the MDdec. That board is itself a 4 x 4 matrix, which already includes the diodes and suppression capacitors and provides the decoupling for 8 turnouts. So it is effectively twice the schematic of figure 3. MDdecs can be cascaded for a larger matrix. With 2 MDdecs you create a 4 x 8 matrix and with 4 MDdecs you create an 8 x 8 matrix.