I am using this slip ring to transmit power to the rotating turntable bridge. I made an adapter from plastic, the brass tube fits inside the axle of the bridge and the other end fits the diameter of the slip ring. I decided to use four of the 6 wires in the slip ring, two for each rail, just for redundancy.
The wires protruding from the axle of the bridge above are actually longer than they appear. The Walthers kit came with the large gear that is shown below. To the lower left is the stepper motor shaft with a gear installed that I purchased. I calculated the pitch when I bought it, but it was many years ago and I cannot remember what it was.
The arrow is pointing to the flag that I use to home the turntable when it is powered up each time. Just to the right of that you see the photo-sensor which detects its position. I modified the Walthers kit, removing the split ring commutator originally used to transmit power up to the track. I added a metal spacer on either side of the gear to keep it in place.
Here is the assembled unit from the back side. The red piece is the back side of the photo-sensor. I still need to make a bracket to keep the slip ring flange from rotating. It won’t take much, I have some plastic sheet stock I may use to fab something up.
Here is a view from the top. I re-painted the pit using some gray primer, painted the ties, and added some rust to the side of the rail. I used some India ink and alcohol wash to add some variation to the surface, applied with a small sponge. Just a start. I still have to add the structure in the middle of the bridge, this was used to carry power for the motor which rotated the turntable. I’m re-painting this right now, not in a hurry to get it in place because it’s fragile. I think there should be some wires from poles outside the pit to a ring on the top of it.
Next, I need to hook this up and make sure it all works, still. Once I get it placed on the layout and lay the access and roundhouse tracks, I’ll need to make a new control panel which represents the new track configuration.
