The Hex Frog Juicer senses a short circuit – any load exceeding 2 amps – when a metal wheel bridges the gap between the frog and an adjacent rail of opposite polarity. A microprocessor-controlled circuit switches the frog off and then back on with the polarity reversed. The short circuit is resolved within 50 microseconds, so neither the motion nor sound effects of a locomotive are interrupted.
Wiring the Hex Frog Juicer means connecting two wires from the track bus and one wire to each controlled frog. Screw terminals are provided on the circuit board. A simple instruction sheet includes a wiring diagram for crossing frogs. The circuit is powered by the DCC track bus, so it needs no additional power supply.
This auto-reversing circuit can be used to power any isolated frog where the polarity isn’t switched by auxiliary contacts. One example of that would be a turnout operated by a simple ground throw or push rod. I’m using it to power the frogs of spring switches on my layout. Trains trail through the sprung points without operating the switch motor, so the frogs would have to be unpowered without some form of auto-reversing capability. The Hex Frog Juicer does this job extremely well.
Scratchbuilt crossings typically don’t have the complex insulation and jumper wiring provided in ready-made crossings, and wiring them usually requires some external means of switching frog polarity. Again, the Hex Frog Juicer is ideally adapted for this task.
I built spring switches on my layout before knowing how I’d be able to power the frogs. I was very glad to find exactly the right component for that requirement.
Price: $69.95
Manufacturer
Tam Valley Depot
4541 Hidalgo Ave
San Diego, CA 92117
www.tamvalleydepot.com
having problem wireing shinohara #6 double crossover DCC with the hex frog juicer need a experts help. Thank You dfkubicki@sbcglobal.net
ITs the greatest thing since the internet.
Hex frog juicer is the answer to solving polarity problems on your layout no more arcing from your metal wheels on crossovers.
Andy: I am only using hand thrown turnouts on Peco Electrofrog turnouts with no motors at all. Can I use this to power route the turnout? Is that essentially what it does? No one has used the phrase power route, so it's not clear to me.
If this is the case, my search is over.
I suggested that a friend in Tucson, Arizona use the Hex Frog Juicer on his club layout and he reported that it works just as they hoped it would.
This seems to me to be the ideal thing for Power friendly turnout assemblies with isolated (otherwise dead) frogs. I will suggest that The Estes Valley Modelrailroaders use the Hex Frog Juicer on our new display layout.
I have used the hex froggers on complex trackwork including Roco three-way switches that would have been otherwise very hard to wire. In addition, the switches can be cut without a problem, again difficult with conventionally relay-powered frogs.
I have a yard that is giving me so much grief that I am just pushing the locos through. This sounds like the answer to my prayers. I am ordering some. If tit works as well as advertized it's a 5