Might someone stick up a layman's wiring schematic to insert a simple power kill switch into the power circuit to the track? A side-note of a possible method to turn it into some sort of "slowdown (pacecar like) switch" might be innovative too.

I'm thinking to put together a simple, little track in my apartment for my grade-school son and the neighborhood kids to utilize thru the winter months when it's too dark or wet to play outside.

Thanks.

Is this what are you are looking for? http://www.infoserve.net/oss/slotcar/relayinstall.htm

Thank you. That may come in handy later on, but for now I'll not be using TrackMate or the like.

It's a much simpler setup with wallwarts for a while. In mulling it over, I've come to wondering if there may well be a simple way to crack into a surge suppressor and splice into the on/off switch in it to effect a quick remote kill button...

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I use a power supply I went to radio shack got a on off switch and a project box put it on the positive wire so i could turn power off veery quickly and stop the cars instantly. when i did it on the power supply it was gradule .the switch and box about 10.00

Thanks all. Some good information in there to work on. Does placement of the cutoff control make a difference; should it be before or after the wallwart/power supply box? This might be an issue to deal with in the case of multiple wallwarts as I use one per lane.

If you just want a cheap Kill switch, plug the wallwarets into a power bar and use the on/off switch on it..We did it that way for years back in the 80's to end timed runs in each lane so we had some inventive gearing to allow a coast of a piece of track or two! LOL!... cheap and less headache then tryiing to wire one more thing unto the table ( and you will lol.. wait till the I have to have lap timming power taps and lighting bug...)

Plus a one everything off switch ensures a longer life and less bills when you leave those overheating wallwarts plugged in.

Coach

I drew this up for a more advanced relay/track call kill switch set up but it might help illustrate an idea for a more simple solution. This is how my track is set up:

http://planetofspeed.net/slots/relay-set-up.jpg

-Scott

...And somewhere I have images that show how we built a relay box into a power strip. That sounds like what Coach is talking about. It's a great set up for running wall-warts.

A "slow-down" switch would require a large resistor or running a secondary track power source for slow speed operation. You could do that with the simple relay I have shown also. Kind of overkill with secondary power, but trying to step down voltage with a diode or resistor could generate some serious heat, depending on your voltage/amperage you're using. ;)

...And somewhere I have images that show how we built a relay box into a power strip. That sounds like what Coach is talking about. It's a great set up for running wall-warts.


For now, that's one I'd REALLY be interesting in seeing. Running multiple wallwarts off a power strip/surge suppressor is my current setup anyway.

Here's a picture of my relay box as illustrated above. The side terminal is for track condition lights around the track(orange leads). My track condition lights are miniature traffic lights converted to race track lights. They tap into the Normally Open/Normally Closed contacts on the other side of the relay. There is also one terminal post for the track power.

This box is basically what I attached to a power strip to trip wall warts with a relay/track call button on another club members track. You just have to run 120v leads through a hole in the power strip to the relay. Then you can control the relay with a 12vdc source like a small wall pack. The large red is a 10 ga wire from the power supply. This would be swapped out for the 120vac lead in your power strip, but would go back to the power strip, NOT exposed in the terminal screw post strip. ;)

http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/HO_Tech/LEDTower/relay_contents.jpg

http://www.supervipersystems.com/VargoSpeedway/HO_Tech/Power_and_Wiring/lambda_power.jpg

I'll dig up the pictures at home of the actual relay controlled power strip.
-Scott V.