Quite a few of my videos are inspired by viewers comments, either in my videos, or through email. I would have never thought of operating a Tortoise switch machine with an Arduino if it wasn’t for a viewer asking the question!
I had to see how it would work. Although an Arduino Uno is capable of operating the Tortoise directly from a pin, it is not recommended, especially if one wants to operate more than one switch machine.
The logical choice was a motor shield, the L293D to be more specific. This shield allows one to operate 4 machines and also has the capability to operate 2 servos from additional pins on the shield.
The best part about it is; the shields are inexpensive, and a lot of modelers bought these shields in the early days of DCC++ thinking that they would work, but didn’t. Hope they didn’t get thrown away!
If You Have A Question, You Never Know, It May Turn Into A Video Someday!