The LaserActive System eliminates two of the main problems we had in running our trains.
The two problems were control panels and decoder addresses.
We've been in the hobby for 35 years and wired a lot of control panels, to control blocks and turnouts.
We converted to DCC as soon as it came out, and thought that our control panel days were over.
But, if you've been running your trains and typing in accessory decoder addresses like we did
for years, you know how much of a hassle they are.
Your hand-held cab is great for controlling trains but not for routing them:
The hand-helds we used (DigiTrax) could control speed or turnouts but not both at the same
time, and switching between these modes is a hassle.
To remember the turnout address, we tried everything from carrying a list with us
to painting the address on a milepost.
One small mistake in typing in the address leads to a dreadful snap
behind you as you throw points under someone else's train.
If you like to watch your trains while they run, you lose that continuity by
having to take your mind out of the railroad to operate the hand-held.
Before DCC, we painted the trackplan on our panels and mounted a toggle or pushbutton in the painting:
This was great for us, but visitors had to match the model track to the panel track
picture to locate the switch, and this is annoying.
Adding a turnout required a change to the panel.
All those wires!!! (And only 90% of them labeled.)
So, we invented the LaserActive System:
You mount little laser "targets"
in your buildings or scenery near the turnouts they control.
The one-piece units simply connect to power and your switch machine.
The two-piece units have a smaller target board so that you can hide it
easier, with the actual switch-machine controller mounted closer to the machine.
A CompleteLaserActiveControl System
.A Two-Piece Controller.
The Small Board of aTwo-Piece Controllerwith a Quarter
A Light Controller & aSwitch-Machine Controllerin a G-Scale Building
You carry your hand-held cab in one hand and your laser pointer & uncoupling tool in the other.
You walk with your train and hit the targets with the laser if you need to change a turnout.
If you don't disguise your targets too much, visitors can operate your layout without much difficulty.
You can easily add or move a turnout without affecting any of the others.
Your wiring is reduced dramatically.
Your wiring becomes self-documenting.
Some LaserActive Controllers can be interconnected to allow Route Control.
The Family includes controllers for lighting and animation control.
Frequently-Asked Questions:
Where do I mount the sensors?
Behind a window in a building near the turnout. Provide a building wall or
other "landing area" for the laser dot, so that you can walk the dot into the window.
The dot is easier to see on a building wall that is not bright red.
In a cave or in a copse of trees. Again, it is important to be able to walk the laser
dot onto the target. You can use a dollar-store pet-entertainer laser pointer to test
your location first.
Outdoors, both the target and the surrounding laser dot
landing area must be in the shade.
You can see in these two pictures what it looks like from 10 feet away, one on the white wall
and the other on the grey roof.
We don't recommend mounting the laser targets more than around
10 feet from where you plan to be when you will operate them.
The sensor target area is a 3/8" circle and you have to hit it for around 1/6th of a second.
This limits the system to a practical range of 10-12 feet.
Our best so far is 15 feet, accomplished with a very steady hand and no coffee.
The laser light passes through glass and plexiglass with no problem.
The laser light bounces off mirrors and smooth glossy surfaces, so make sure that
none are near the targets where a reflection could reach someone's eyes.
Regarding outdoors & the weather, there are a number of issues.
We coat outdoor units to protect them from humidity & occasional water splashes but
they cannot be left in the rain.
They must be kept out of direct sunlight. We mount ours in G-scale buildings,
about 3-6 inches back from a window (plastic or glass), and not facing anywhere
that the sun can be (if the horizon is uncluttered, sunrise or sunset can subtly cause problems).
Is this the same as using a TV remote control?
No. The TV remote light is invisible and has a wide beam.
You select different functions through different buttons on the remote.
The laser is a very narrow beam and you can see where it is aiming.
The pointer has only one button (on or off) and
you select different functions by hitting different targets.
Do I have to convert my whole layout to the LaserActive System?
No. You can start with one switch & see how you like it.
The one-piece units control just one device,
and are totally independent of other units.
We're still working on the occupancy detectors and the LB-10 Pushbutton Substitutes
but they have been delayed.
Sorry for any inconvenience - we know that there are a
lot of people waiting for these. The delay was unavoidable.
The LA-10 Laser Target (used in Two-Piece Controllers and with Route-Control Units)
now comes in three configurations, permitting different orientation of the sensor
in relation to the indicator lights (and the connector wiring screws, which are on the same side
as the indicators).
The "normal" configuration is for mounting in a building - the sensor is on the same
side of the circuit board as the indicators.
The "panel" configuration" has the sensors on the opposite side as the indicators, so that
you can mount the boards poking through from the back of a display panel.
The "unsoldered" configuration is for those who wish to solder the sensors on themselves, so they can point them in other directions,
like in-line with the end of the board to
make a very thin package.
We haven't figured out how to make all these options available on this website (yet) so please specify which way you want your sensors mounted as a note with your order.
This applies to all Two-Piece Controllers and all Add-On Laser Targets used
with Route-Control Units.
For those looking for more batteries for your laser pointers, the best way to get them
is in the "pet entertainment" section of your local dollar store, like Family Dollar.
Buy a new laser pointer - it comes with batteries! It can also be used as a spare laser pointer in case yours breaks. Note that the special insert that came with your LP-10 has to be moved from your
old pointer to the new one.
We're still working on shipping to customers outside of the US & Canada. We ask that those customers please e-mail us before putting in an order
& we'll work out a shipping method suited to your location.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
We can apply a silcone coating on units that you wish to mount outdoors.
This coating offers some protection from the moisture, humidity, corrosion and thermal shock
that play havoc with outdoor-mounted circuit boards. The coated units have -C added to the part number
and cost $3 extra. Please add 2 days to the shipping time.
Thanks to all those who visited us at our booth at the
Amherst Railway Society's Railroad Hobby Show
in Springfield MA in January.
Our All-in-One Controllers contain the LaserActive TM target and controller on one circuit board.
They fit nicely into buildings or caves or a copse of trees.
You just provide power and wire them up to what you want to control.
Our Two-Piece Controllers use a LaserActive remote target on a two- or three-foot tether.
You hide the remote targets in your scenery or a building and mount the controller units separately.
These controllers can also plug into other controllers to enable Route-Control, as described next.
Our Route-Control Units can be activated by occupancy detectors and other controllers
to enable automatic route alignment. This is useful in yards, industrial trackage,
and to add variety to fully-automatic railroads.
To better hide your laser sensors within your scenery, or get them out of the weather on outdoor layouts,
you may be able to take advantage of the fact that laser light bounces off a mirror or
a smooth white surface.
Our units are protected against reverse wiring polarity. If you accidently swap the
power wires, our units will just ignore you until you get the wiring right.
We've done our best to make our units easy to power and easy to wire.
But it requires a bit of understanding on your part to get them powered the best (& cheapest)
way, so please read the section on Powering Up.
Each of our controllers has a pushbutton that can be used to toggle the unit in case
your laser pointers have run out of batteries.
- A signal sent into Input 1 sets the switch to position 1.
- A signal sent into Input 2 sets the switch to position 2.
The controller sends a signal back down the power wiring to indicate
that its route is about to be used. This signal can be used to tell other controllers
to line up the route accordingly.
Stub Yard
The example is a three-track stub yard and uses two switch-machine controllers and three LA-10
LaserActive remote targets, one per track.
If you hit Target 1 with the laser, it will send a signal
to Controller 2 on its Input 2. Controller 2 will then ensure that
its switch is set to the Position 2 position (for Track 1).
If instead you hit the Target 3, it will signal
Controller 1 on its Input 1. Controller 1 will then ensure that
its switch is set to the Position 1 position (for Track 3).
Controller 1 then sends a signal down its power wiring, which comes from Controller 2's
Input 1 terminals. Controller 2 then ensures that the rest of the route is lined up properly
for Track 3 by setting its switch to Position 1.
These route signals are propagated back through your entire stub yard, no matter how
many tracks it has. And it has only one set of wires going back to the power supply.
In fact, if you examine it carefully, you'll see that your wiring exactly
matches your track plan.
Put Your Track Plan Here!
Please e-mail us if you have trackage
in your layout that is not covered by this
section. We'll make sure that it is.
Just attach a .jpg, .bmp or .pdf of what you are planning.
We've done our best to make our units easy to power and easy to wire.
But it requires a bit of understanding on your part to get them powered the best (& cheapest)
way, so please read this section:
If you have only one of our units, just power it up using the instructions provided with it.
If you have several units and don't want to wire them together in any way, or share
a power supply between them, just power them up individually using the instructions provided with them.
If you have several units and you want to run them off the same power supply,
or if they are route-control units that need to be interconnected, you'll need to read on.
Some of our units can be powered by AC or DC (your choice).
If your power supply is DC, then just make sure that:
its voltage is high enough (some units need a minimum of 14VDC and some need 20VDC)
but not too high (our units can take 25VDC but no more),
its current capability is high enough (add up the current needed by all of
your units and the devices they drive - and don't forget that you'll be getting more in the future).
If your power supply is AC, remember that the "18 Volts" of an 18-Volt AC transformer
is actually an average of the peaks and valleys of the AC. Our units work with the
peaks only and will convert the 18 Volts AC into 25 Volts DC.
Similarly they will convert 10VAC into 14VDC.
The current calculation is the same as for DC.
Our All-in-One Controllers can be powered by AC or DC. You can use track power if it is
of sufficient voltage and is always available. DCC, carrier-control,
track-assisted battery power, and live steam
with track also powered should work fine.
Standard DC track power ("analog DC") won't work because the track is unpowered when the trains are stopped.
Our Two-Piece and Route-Control units can only be powered by DC. This is because
the units have to talk to each other - they require a common negative power supply wire.
You can also use more than one power supply, but you must interconnect the negative wires.
If you are controlling lights or sound units, they will have their own power
specifications, and that could affect how you power the rest of your LaserActive system. For example, if you control a 12-V 100mA light bulb with our
Light Controller, all you will need to provide is 16VDC or 12VAC, at 120mA
(the controller could take up to 20 mA).
There is an on-board adjustable voltage regulator that lets you get the brightness
just right (most 12V bulbs look better with 11V, or even less). The LL-10 needs 4-6 Volts of
"headroom", so you could actually get away with powering this setup with 15VDC.
But you could go as high as 25VDC. The voltage regulator that we put on these boards is
very efficient so you needn't worry about wasting energy by using a higher voltage.
Most slow motion switch-machines use 12VDC and consume 25 to 600mA when they
are moving. Our controllers only run these motors for 5 seconds and then shut them off.
The machines are geared enough that they won't turn when unpowered, so we've not
found any problem with our method other than for those who have wired an LED
in series with the motor as a position indicator - the LEDs won't work anymore.
If you have many independent people running your layout, or a large route-controlled
yard, you will have to provide a power supply with enough current capability
to handle many machines firing at the same time.
If you stick to low-current machines (in the 25-50mA range), just about any old train power pack
will suffice. With the All-in-One Controllers, use the Accessories terminals.
With our Two-Piece or Route-Control units, use the DC (track) output and set the throttle to high.
The voltage sent to the motors is 12V in all cases.
We use 20VDC to operate solenoid switch machines.
Our controllers send a very short power pulse so you don't have to worry about
burning out a coil.
With our All-in-One Controllers, you can use 12-25VDC or 10-18VAC.
With our Two-Piece or Route-Control units, use 12-24VDC only.
Our units use only up to 50mA each, so one amp can drive 20 of them easily.
They don't use 50mA all the time, only when they are
powering up or recharging after use, but it is that initial powering-up step that
is the most demanding on your power supply.
Our LaserActive targets and occupancy detectors are wired to the
controllers they control and use so little power that you can ignore them in your power calculations.
If you need other AC/DC voltage conversions, the multiplier is 1.4.
Common approximate conversions:
10VAC=14VDC, 11VAC=15VDC, 12VAC=17VDC, 14VAC=20VDC, 16VAC=22VDC, 18VDC=25VAC.
A CompleteLaserActiveControl System
.A Two-Piece Controller.
The Small Board of aTwo-Piece Controllerwith a Quarter
A Light Controller & aSwitch-Machine Controllerin a G-Scale Building
landing area must be in the shade.
You can see in these two pictures what it looks like from 10 feet away, one on the white wall
and the other on the grey roof.